Failsafe
by Justanideaman2
Summary: Marco finds a mysterious sword one day and is entrusted with the fate of Mewni. At first, it seems easy but over time it has been proven difficult. This is a story that I put together after seeing how useless Marco can get to be. It was an idea of mine way back when the battle for Mewni was released, I got the idea of making a fan fiction about it back in May.
1. Chapter 1

Failsafe

A svtfoe story

Toffee was defeated… this was something Marco had begun to deem impossible. He stared at the lifeless body and then at Star. It seemed he had one of the most minor roles in all of Mewni. He sighed, and then mumbled, "Well at least it's over." Soon after Star got to rest in the butterfly castle, everyone too shocked to realize the entirety of what she had done. All but Marco: for Toffee was one of the first people in a while to expect more from him. To Marco, it seems that Toffee was the cat and he was forever the mouse. But at least everyone was okay, or at least for the most part. There was still no word about the condition of the magic high commission. Marco used to think of them as strange, but it had dawned on him that they were beginning to grow on him personally. Especially Hekapoo, she taught Marco more about the world than most people could, including his own parents. Once the worry had begun to consume him, he went to ask Queen Moon, "Umm excuse me, what's going to happen to the high commission?" "If my guess is correct," said Moon Butterfly, "then the realm of magic that flows between dimensions should've cleared up after Toffee was defeated. Star did a fine job, she'll definitely make a good queen, but to answer your question, yes the high commission will be fine." Marco then affirmed, "Well that's great then! Almost hard to think that the one clearing up the magic dimension is a year younger than me. Then again technically I'm 32 years old, so guess she's 17 years younger than me." Moon laughed but her expression turned grim, "That reminds me, Marco, I have an old friend to check up on, your welcome to stay as long as you like." Marco said accepted, "Do you guys have nachos?"

Ruberiot, Foolduke, Marco, Moon, River, and even the mime were waiting. Apparently, Star was waking up, so they waited in order to congratulate her on defeating Toffee. The door opened, and her long blond hair was the only thing Marco needed to be certain that it was Star. "Congratulations Star!" they all said in unison. She giggled, "Gee thanks." "Well thanks to you Mewni isn't in shambles," said King River, "and we have an excuse for a feast!" Star asked, "By the way Marco, what made you come to Mewni?" The reply consisted of, "Well the Diazes can't have you leaving your favorite cereal all alone." She questioned, "Cereal? You really worry about people don't you Marco?" He shrugged oblivious to what she meant, "Actually I probably should get back, after all, you know how scary mom gets. But first I gotta get something to eat." River catching the hint, "Let's eat!" The entrees mainly consisted of corn, yet there was plenty of chicken to go alongside it. "Wow, cornbread, corn beef, corn on the cob, you name it and it's here," Marco said astounded by what he saw. The feast lasted way longer than it could've, but just as long as it should've. By the time they finished Moon had returned just in time to see Marco off. It definitely was awkward being so close to Star after her confession to having a crush on him, but after an exchange of unsynced hugs, Marco stepped through the portal.

Instead of Earth, Marco had been so hardwired to Mewni he ended up in a different section of the castle, yet he was certain that the color from the rift that the dimensional scissors created was the correct one for Earth. "Huh strange," Marco said to himself. It seemed like he was in a training room, but it was too dark for an evening, seen as the knights would still be using it. 'Wha-," Marco stopped when he saw the wooden board, it stood out from the surrounding concrete. After removal Marco found a latter leading so far down that he couldn't even see the bottom. So curiously, he began to climb down. When Marco finally reached the bottom, there was a hallway dimly lit by torches. It started at the latter and ended at what looked like equipment for a specific person. Marco saw many glass cases full of armor, shields, and what looked like designs/paintings. Then there was a lone sword on the floor, its stand above. It was curved back slightly and for the most part, it looked like a katana only with a red line going up the sword's spine and connecting to the sides. Effectively making one side consisting of a half key, and the other consist of a lock. All while the hilt distinguished itself in a leaf green color surrounded by string. "What is all of this?" Marco asked himself. He picked up the sword and instantly found himself facing a dark wall. Marco turned around only to find green and yellow liquid and a horizontal plastic tube connected on both sides to other plastic tubes that seemingly sucked up the liquids. When Marco saw it, he could say that about 60 percent of the tube was yellow and the other 40 percent green. On the other side, he spotted a white door, separate from the pitch black. Outside were three more doors, a crossroads. Each door held a different label: heart, magic, family, and the one he came from, mind. For starters magic was completely empty, but family held portraits of knights and mainly those second-in-command to the Queen. The door for heart was locked. Then Marco felt his hair touch something round and looked up to find a door, only this time it was suspended in the air. The label said, "Failsafe". Marco went through, and to his surprise, he was back in the same dark hallway. There was bright green writing beginning to form on the sword's stand, and when Marco noticed he stood in awe, "This is a precious treasure carried throughout the butterfly kingdom. You have been chosen to wield this blade against the those who threaten the wellbeing of Mewni. That being said, this was created to be a failsafe, as the name implies. Meaning that it is now your job to make sure that our Queen doesn't become corrupt and to take care of the problem that is presented if she does. If you put this back then I, the creator of the failsafe sword, fear that Mewni is doomed. That is all." Marco couldn't believe it, him helping Mewni, as easy as this. He wouldn't be able to not accept. Not after the warning that was given to him about the fate of Mewni. So Marco did what he had to, he got his scissors and left for Earth with the sword in hand.

"Marco! Where were you?!" Mrs, Diaz exclaimed. "Well," Marco began, "you see Mewni was in danger and I was concerned about star an-." "I'm just glad your okay," she said and then hugged him, "But you're grounded." "Really, but I was-," Marco rebutled. "Appt, it's what you get for not calling," said Mrs. Diaz. "Well it would've been worse if she saw the sword," Marco thought. He had hidden it in his room with the cape that River gave him at the feast, and now that Marco gave it a second thought it was strange to think that River would speak of knighting Marco at dinner. But this didn't bug him for long, soon Marco was fast asleep in his bed, dreaming of summer vacation.

Marco loved his new cape. It made him feel strong and in a way, he should if he actually ended up doing his job. Yet Marco messed up, he became too attached to his cape and never once touched the sword. He hadn't even begun to play a part in Mewni's success. Soon, his pride and love of Mewni had become even too much for those around him. His friends would often question his "greatness" and didn't want any part in his new ego trip. Jackie began to question Marco's values as well, and made one of the most simple tasks: don't bring the cape to their date. For the most part, the date was fine, but Marco couldn't accept the thought of living without pride ever again. Jackie noticed how out of character this new confident Marco was. After instigating she found out that he disregarded her demands. So they broke up, he couldn't stay committed to her and overall he failed her. Then, reality hit him, he was failing, maybe not in a way that affected him, but in a way that affected those around him. "The sword," he thought. That's when he got the idea. He needed to spend his time close to Mewni in order to help it. He was going back, but not before ensuring that he capable. Meaning that Marco was headed for dimension X. He went back out into the field and this time he wasn't facing Hekapoos, but instead, he was facing the corrupt monster clans that sought to overthrow and enslave villages across dimension X. Each one had the same hunger, the hunger for power, and Marco learned that he needed the mindset of his foes in order to beat them. The monsters that he fought ranged from humanoid dogs and cats to that of elephants and coyotes. Hypothetically, it took 2 months, but for everyone else, it was a mear 5 seconds. After that, Marco Diaz was off and had himself both a plan and another monthly check of 650 dollars. Apparently, towns love full jailhouses. The thought of Marco being anything more than himself is what astounded the people around him, yet this time there was no one to astound. He was an official bounty hunter as of today. It was nothing compared to his 16 years with Hekapoo, yet this time he knew what it meant to, maybe not truly but at least partially, do something for someone else himself. This is the story of one the greatest heroes in Mewman history, Failsafe.


	2. Chapter 2

After telling his parents that there was still much to be done on Mewni, they decided to give him, "the ceremony he deserved". It had only been 2 weeks but even so, many of his friends came to give him a farewell: his sensei, Jackie, Janna, Ferguson, and Alfonso. Although he needed his new lifestyle to be a secret, he still felt bad for blatantly lying to them all. It was something that Marco wasn't use to doing and never had a reason to be. It just felt wrong to him, but he knew that this wouldn't be the first time. He obviously couldn't tell Star, or the whole purpose of the sword would amount to nothing. Meaning Marco would once again fail. With that in mind Marco was able to rest easy after arriving on Mewni. He found himself on a hillside staring at the large mass that was the butterfly castle and thought to himself, "Okay, the first thing I need to do is get to an official bounty board." Marco began to walk but stopped himself, "Wait! After the music day…," then thinking over it, "after the Ruberiot tried to force me and Star together there's bound to be people who would end up recognizing me. I gonna need to hide my identity if I'm going to bounty hunt…. That's it! There's a parade coming to Echo Creek tomorrow afternoon, I'll probably be able to get a costume there." So after careful consideration Marco decided to tell Star that he was back, and to take River up on his offer.

Embarrassment, one of the things Marco feared most had caught him. River never meant what he said about knighting Marco, the cape was a meat blanket River gave to him as a farewell present. Although he was able to be a squire, Star was frustrated at his boldness. She had a lot on her hands and just got another burden. Marco did feel bad, but he knew that it was what he had to do. Thinking on the topic, Marco was lucky that when he snuck into the castle, the guards who caught him didn't search his bags, or it could've turned violent. Apparently, the knight for the washer was Marco's new superior. He was required to complete a trail, clean the lint cleaner and then he can squire. But based on the number of skeletons there were it seemed pretty difficult, so Marco decided upon taking his time to stealthily get to the main cleaning fan. Yet, halfway through Star came in, totally unaware of the memo that was: danger. "Marco! I came to save you, since… well everyone else who had decided on being a squire to this guy," Star pointed back, "is dead." Marco sighed and pointed pointed behind him towards the massive ball of lint that had risen from the ground. Then it was battle mode, star used her spells to create openings where Marco could attack it. "Mega Narwhal blast," exclaimed Star as she hit the ball of lint right between its eyes. Marco took advantage of this and kicked the head, making it dissolve in thin air. But it didn't take long to reassemble. Quickly, Star summoned Cloudy to take Marco and her to the switch on the fan that would turn it on. Marco flipped it and the fan spun, effectively dispersing the lint. "Well, I owe you one Star, than-," Marco began but Star interrupted with, "We're not done yet, hang on." Marco did and then Star jumped and used her exit spell to get them both out of the contraption. "Anyway thanks," said Marco. "No biggy, it's what friends are for right?" Star said with a smile spreading across her face. "Follow me." She lead Marco towards her room and told him to kneel. "Wha-," started Marco, "Just kneel!" Star said. Then Marco was promoted to a princess's squire. All-in-all, Marco didn't expect this to happen after his abrupt entrance. Honestly he expected to become a squire and then get himself fired, minimizing supiousion. But, this was better than anything he could've imagined or so he thought. "Wait," thought Marco, "I have a secret that even the princess can't know, yet I find myself getting closer to her rather than further away. This might turn out to be difficult, but let me think… Star is back with Tom and will be spending one on one time with him, and with the official matters that Star will be attending, I get at least 3-4 hours on most days. Hmm, this might prove useful." With that, Marco spent the rest of the day hanging out and eligible for what would be his best sleep in a while.

The next day, Marco told Star about the parade, knowing that it didn't fit into her time schedule. "All right, see you later Marco," said Star. Marco used the dimensional scissors to get back to Earth, and he hid his face using his hoodie. The main place he was really headed for was the marketplace, where they would have masks, full zipper hoodies, and even some costumes. Once at the parade he saw what seemed like 200 people milling about. The parade itself was for a popular T.V. show that was about to get a reboot, Marco never watched it himself since it was to old for him to be able to get into it, but the show, Sailor Moon, was one that apparently many people liked. Just for some insight, Marco wasn't looking for Sailor Moon merchandise. He was looking for the merchandise from the previous parade, which had been for the day of the dead. After getting past the many hordes of casual fans to cosplayers, Marco finally found the correct section. There he saw an assortment of items, but Marco and his love for hoodies couldn't leave the option of choosing one behind. He got a hoodie that zipped up all the way to his face. The design was a skeletal maniac, the glow in the dark green skeleton part spread to his arms and across his torso. The face was that of the maniac trying to hold in a maniacal laugh. The eye holes were covered with white string and the rest of the sweatshirt was black. Only then did Marco realize that it fit in perfectly with either his traditional black pants or black sweats. Now, everything was ready, Marco just needed black sweats and he was set. Yet on his way out he heard muffled scream and the voice of a man, "How about we do some roleplay baby?" The screams got louder and marco knew that trouble was afoot. He quickly put on his newly found clothing, and dashed into the alleyway where he had heard the voices. He saw three men and a woman dressed up as Sailor Moon, one was armed with a sleek dagger and the others were huddled around him.. Quickly and instinctively, Marco dropkicked the closest one, and before landing he grabbed the knife and slid, slashing at the other man's leg. The man dropped to one knee and Marco lept over his back and tackled the first man to the ground, then Marco punched until he was out cold. The other two stared at the white string surrounding his eyes, and then at each other, they both got up and ran towards Marco. He flipped the one with the injured knee as soon as a punch had been thrown. Then he ducked under the other man's punch and jumped, effectively headbutting him. Marco had the man in a favorable positions were he turned his body to kick his face, making a full somersault. All three were down for the count. "Thank you mister…,-" the woman began to say. Macro thought hard, there was no way that he would say his real name to someone who lived in Echo Creek same as him. "Failsafe," said Marco. She said, "I guess this is something you do a lot then. I would think so if your a vigilante with a name already. Once again thanks." "Your welcome. Also could you be the one to call the cops?" Marco said as she began to leave. She turned and nodded. Just as he was about to throw the dagger it changed into a X-599 rondel dagger. It was double bladed but it seemed a bit short, seeing as it was only 9 inches long. Now Marco needed both a holster and sweatpants. With only an hour and 30 minutes to his name. The dagger began to glow purple and on the wall to Marco's left, text once again started forming, "Every swordsman needs a hidden blade." Marco soon realized, "The sword!" He had left it in his bag at the castle, meaning the longer he took the more chance there would be that Star might go searching through it. He needed to hurry up, and with that he was off. Marco looked down at himself and thought to himself, "Now I need to hide myself as Marco and a vigilante." He sighed and then realized he had his red sweatshirt under his new one. He thought to himself, "Guess I'm a bit to attached my sweatshirts afterall."

Because he of the rush, the shopping took about 45 minutes, and in reality the only reason that he was able to get a dagger holster in 45 minutes was because the many of the adults on the peer would sell Marco anything he needed, as long as he paid double. "Man I was jipped twice," Marco thought, "Since when is a holster $300, I mean it's pretty nice but he really just wanted all the cash I had on me. With $50 on sweatpants that's another $650 down the drain." With the dimensional scissors in hand he slumped his way into the rift, and soon he found himself inside of Mewni. Star's door was open and the lights off. "Made it," Marco said. He quickly got to the bag and stuffed it with all of his stuff, got his dimensional scissors in hand again, and hid it back in his room on Earth. Once back on Mewni he was leaving Star room when, he bumped into Star. Marco thought, "Wew, just in the nick of time." "Oh hey Marco," said Star planning something, "Wanna go shopping at Questbuy?" "Sure," said Marco.

Well I hope that this one was better than the first one, I spent way more time on it to try and make it have a little bit more story, and fit up with the main show. I'll probably have a new chapter every two days, but sometimes, it might be one. Tomorrow, I'll diffidently spend my time revising the first chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Marco stared at the bounty board, he was wearing his new attire, he had changed out the white string on his eyes with the lenses that were used in sunglasses, and he had his sword in hand with the dagger in its sheath upon his arm. He was looking at the one which said, "Unknown monster kidnapping the working class for his revision of Mewni. $200." "Man this world can really seem strange at times. I wonder if I should take the reward money or not," Marco thought, "I mean it could be good for business. Hmm… probably not, the creator of the failsafe sword said that I should do what's best for Mewni, and I'm pretty sure that it would be best for me if I could get a service and not have to pay, well at least not have to pay $650." He walked up to the service desk, the whole compound was inside of a long half-tent that's cloth was held up by tied lumber and was colored with a browned yellow. There were a fair amount of other bounty hunters there, most were people who used bounties as a job. Marco cleared his throat and began talking in his adult counterpart's voice, "Um, could I get this bounty on the kidnapper guy?" "Wow, you must've been born pretty short mister, you look like your in high school." The lady worker said. Marco almost laughed at the irony of the situation, but after a long pause, he just shrugged. "Anyway, I'll need whatever name you're going by, and if you have one, your ID." Marco thought, "Since this is Mewni then I probably will need a different ID than the one back on Earth. Lucky me I don't even need it for this kind of work." Marco then said, "I'll be going by Failsafe, and I do not have an ID." "Well then Failsafe, I leave it to you," said the lady as she handed Marco the bounty.

"Back into the swing of things now I guess," Marco thought, "or at least for the most part." Marco looked down at himself in his teenage body and thought, "Speaking of my adult body I need to do a little shopping for a sword sheath." Marco knew that in Mewni weapon supplies were sold often, fortunately, they took dollar bills. He just needed a simple one for his sword, so the first one he saw he got, well that's not entirely true. See, the sword just had to go on his back, so for something that should've taken no more than 10 minutes, it took half an hour. But, when he was satisfied he set out towards the first step in Mewni's future. Marco had somewhat of a plan, he needed to take out the small thugs, then their bosses, and then the gang leaders. Effectively making it more difficult for the thugs to take part in high-risk jobs. After that, he would go for the small jobs, and the criminals would once again be silenced by the simple-minded jobs that law enforcement would take care of.

Marco looked the clock inside of the shop to his left, he had an hour and 45 minutes before Star's get together with all of the girls would end. An hour after that she was going to be on a date with Tom. If Marco played his time right, he could end up with having 3 hours. So he set forth, the last place that this monster had been seen was newculburg road. If his guess was correct it seemed that the monster got into the homes of his victims before kidnapping them. Meaning that he needed a vehicle big enough to fit families inside. A chariot would work, so would a wagon. If the monster had dimensional scissors then the house of those who were kidnapped would've of been seen. But even still the witnesses could've been lying, so Marco checked the front door and saw scratch marks indicating the victims were carried out of the house. By looking at were the marks were, Marco could guess that one of the victims were slung over the monster's shoulder, indicating that he was seven feet tall, just able to fit through the doorway.

Marco went inside the house, it was the average house, it had a fireplace in the living room to his right, a staircase leading up in front of him, and a kitchen to his left. He looked for the room that would hold the most entertainment, and found a message that had been left by the monster, "They are needed for the ideal Mewni that want, need, and because of them, can have." "Sure," Marco thought, "well this means that he's been taking all them somewhere. Probably somewhere that produces something that could be used by monsters. A warehouse maybe?" He started to look at where he thought the vehicle must've been, there were no tracks nor hoofprints. Yet, Marco could tell that the monster had seemingly changed horseshoes because there was a slash in the road. If he thought about it, Marco could see the horse stumbling a bit on the next step after getting new horseshoes and making a crack in the road with the edge of the horseshoe. Marco pulled out a compass from his pocket, the trail lead towards a Northwestern direction. He pulled out the map to look for all the warehouses and factories along the route that the monster took. There were 3 but based on the locations of the other kidnappings, there were only 2 that formed a central point. With this in mind, Marco's only option was to look at the names and information. One of the warehouses was abandoned and supposedly empty, there were routine checks being held there for about a year after its closing. About the same time that the criminal became active.

Now, Marco had the case closed, but before heading off, Marco called Star, "Hey, I found a place in Mewni with pretty good Mexican style food. So you know how it is with me, no taco discarded like a nacho, no nacho eaten like a taco." "So what you're really saying is that my squire isn't going to be doing his job for a little bit," Star said. "Yeah sorry, it's a pretty good place, maybe we and a couple of others should go there sometime," Marco said in his own defense. "Sounds great! Alright, later Marco."

Marco stood in front of the ominous warehouse and readied himself for the last part of his bounty, to take down the infamous kidnapper. It was about as big as a football field and it was pretty hollow except for a few machines and tables for blacksmithing. The only colors in sight were gray and black. There were stairs and scaffolding to Marco's left and right, each side leading to a single door in the back. Marco went over the details and thought, "if there isn't something on the other side of that door then they'll have to be… underneath maybe?" He walked up the stairs and towards the door and was about to open it when he noticed the sound that dimensional rift gives. "What, the criminal doesn't have dimensional scissors or else he would have used them to make his cause get achieved faster. Unless, he was working for someone else, someone with the same goal using him to get the dirty work done. This might not just be the occasional crook, but a hired blade working for someone much more powerful. It's probably a rogue band of monsters, but how far does this thing go?" Marco thought. If there were guards on the other side he would need to attack quickly so they couldn't go through the portal themselves. Marco thought, "Open, jump, slash, kick."

He opened the door and jumped upwards, there were two monsters standing there, in what seemed like it was once an office. One of the monsters was a tiger while the other one was what looked like a lion. He took the dagger in hand and swung at the monster, yet instead of making a cut, the slashed flesh glowed and the monster was seemingly hit with the same amount of force, only there was no cut. Macro quickly, almost missing his chance kicked the tiger in the face and went over towards its body. Marco couldn't say why but he slashed at it, not once but 3 times, and the same thing happened, it was pushed against the ground by an unseen force. The ground underneath the monster began to consist of light cracks and marks. "Hmm," Marco thought, "the dagger takes the overall force used on the slash and made that same amount of force apply to the entire body." The dagger began to glow and writing was beginning to force, "Peace or violence?" "What do you think?" Marco said. The dagger projected the word violence, "Wait, no peace. Man, give me a break." It glowed with the words peace and Marco rolled his eyes. He looked back as one of the monsters, the lion started to get up. "Hey sword or dagger or whatever, if I throw this dagger will that whole thing happen again?" Marco asked. Writing began to take form on the wall to Marco's left, "Yes, but I want you to know that I'm simply the will of my creator, so call me Vence." "Yeah yeah," Marco said as he threw the dagger just as the monster broke into a run. When it hit, the monster, almost falling, buckled and started running again, but it was too late. Marco hit the monster with an uppercut as well as a kick to its stomach. "This portal probably leads to wherever the Mewmans are being held." Marco thought.

Marco's first thought as he walked through was that whatever this place was, it was huge. It looked like a factory, and the dimension he was in must've been Mewni because it was nearby the ruins of Ludo's castle. "Oh my am I in for a treat," Marco said. He took the sword out of its sheath and got well on his way towards the factory. He looked for a good place to get in, but all of the glass was so red that he couldn't see inside. So, being a Marco he broke the glass and all beats were on, he wasn't seen, he wasn't in either, but many of the guards noticed. "Alright just as I thought, this place has a high temperature, so the air pressure must crack the glass at least sometimes. If I put a crack in this other one, by the time the guards instigate, it'll seem like an accident." He looked inside to find armor, weapons, and random equipment lying about. They came off of one of the many conveyor belts strewn about the factory. After the guards gave up on the thought of intrusion, Marco went in. He thought to himself, "The Mewman probably have to do manual labor so that, 1: the conveyor belts will keep on moving, and 2: so that armor can continuously get made." With this in mind, he found the nearest guard and hit him in the back of the head with a lance that had been lying on the floor.

Next thing the guard knew, he was tied to a chair and was on the outside of the factory. He stared at the metal dish, it was on a tripod table and held everything from a scalpel to a hacksaw. Then, he looked up at the laughing maniac design on the facial part of Marco's hoodie. "Ok, I'll tell you anything you want!." "Oh, I don't need much… so where is your boss right about now?" Marco said. The guard responded instantly, eying the metal dish, "He's meeting with lower monster gangs in order to recruit them I swear!" Marco took the scalpel and pricked him on the cheek, the monster froze, and then Marco laughed, "Your not gonna die, I just can't have you telling anyone about me. So your gonna have to take a slight nap."

After the monster had been put unconscious, Marco went towards the beginning of the conveyor belt. It didn't take long and would've taken a pretty short amount of time if there weren't' so many guards. If Marco's guess was correct, then he had 15 minutes to get these prisoners and take down the monster. Once he saw the prisoners, Marco wanted for his target. He came out from underneath what looked like a station for giving the Mewmans food. The monster splashed a dish of water on one of the Mewmans and said with pure disgust, "Drink up slave. Hey," the monster looked up, "I want all guards to look around the factory, I heard that window break, and if boss reads about this factory in the papers, we're dead. Wait, except for you 2," the monster pointed at 2 of the monsters, one female one male, "your staying with me." This was Marco's chance, as soon as the other guards left, he jumped on the male guard's head and slammed him to the ground. He threw his dagger at the kidnapper, but before being able to finish him the other guard kicked him and Marco skidded across the ground. Almost instantly he was back up and ran to the guard. She tried to jab him with her spear, but Marco dodged, slashed her stomach, and as she wobbled backward, he got both legs around her neck and flipped her unto the ground. The kidnapper had begun to run once again, but Marco once again picked up his dagger and threw it at him. Then once he was on the ground, Marco used his scissors to open a rift. Since it was dinnertime the prisoners were all gathered around the food station, and even though they were having a late dinner, it still reminded Marco that he only had a few minutes at best to get back to the Butterfly castle. He put the monster in first then he told the prisoners to go through as well.

They arrived nearby the bounty stations, and Marco, dragging the monster along with him. Once he was at the counter he told the woman working there that it bounty was done but he had a whole bunch to report. "Are those the people the kidnaped?" She asked. "Yeah," Marco said, "Apparently there's a whole organization lead by monsters that used this guy to get more products." "Wait, take it step by step, what's happening?" Marco told the woman everything he knew. "Well thanks, Mr. Failsafe, your gonna get quite a bit when of cash when I tell this to the higher-ups," she said. "Keep it," Marco said. "What, why you could be rich?" "I shouldn't stop Mewni from becoming the best it can be." "Wow, you sure are a strange man."

Marco checked the nearest clock, he was late by 7 minutes. Quickly, he took out his dimensional scissors and got back to his room on Earth. He took off the hoodie and sweatpants and switched it for his usual black jeans and red hoodie. Then, making another rift, Marco got back to Mewni just as his phone rang. Star noticed the sweat all over Marco's face. "Oh no. The heat from the factory, it must have caused me to sweat quite a bit inside of that hoodie." Marco thought. "So what took you, soooooo, long to do that you never even came to the Butterfly castle?" Star asked. "Well," Marco began, "umm… after I found that taco place, a man inside told me about this ninja course that was recently set up on Mewni. It was gonna start at supper time so I had the run pretty quickly, and by the time it was over I realized that I really needed to get back. So I ran back to Mewni and-," "Wait a minute, why didn't you just use dimensional scissors?" Star questioned. "Well I uh, left them behind the flower pot at the front door when I was tying my shoes." "Marco, you're so clumsy." Star laughed. "Whew, that was-," Marco thought. "Hey, whats that under your hoodie?" Star asked. "The dagger!" Marco thought, "Oh crap, come on, come on, come on think!" "Shhh, I'm trying to hide a late night burrito from your parents," Marco said. Star smiled, "I've caught you red handed, but don't worry, your secret's safe with me. You'll owe me one though." "Ok, Ok just don't tell, or else I won't be able to sleep," Marco said. Star winked. Marco thought, "If I don't have a heart attack tonight then I'm getting a lottery ticket."

Sorry, I didn't have this out yesterday, I was busy basically all day and still needed to do chapter 1 revisions. This is by far my longest chapter yet, I'm trying to set the stage for many things that are to come. This was a kind-off bridge chapter and one more about mystery and heavy thinking. Chapter four will either come late, as in very late, today or tommorow. I wanted to get up to chapter 5 this weekend so expect that on Sunday.

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 **Ok future me here doing revisions on this chapter. I changed the writing to be a little more fluent as well as just fixing the errors (like spaceing out the chapters and stuff.**


	4. Chapter 4

The boss looked over the report, throwing the papers, infuriated. He began to speak slowly, spinning a playing card on his finger, "How could you let this happen, we may be ready, but I don't have these gangs loyalty yet. If this happens again, consider getting back at her a lost cause. We'll be forced to start over, and you'll be left behind. Your already the luckiest one here, to be taken in without monster blood and then able to rise up this much." The boss's second in command stood firm, "Yes sir. Sorry, sir." He left the office and looked down at his hands, "Mewni's Failsafe has uncovered a new monster guild. Apparently, they are planning a reformation on Mew-," the second in command tore the paper and threw it to the ground. The only thing visible was a picture of Failsafe's face, taken at the bounty boards in Mewni. "I swear I'll kill you Failsafe, on my life."

Marco thought it over, "Maybe it's not so bad being famous, even if they don't know who you really are. It's only been a day since then but now everyone knows about that monster organization." He was eating breakfast while reading another one of his karate magazines. Star came into his room, "Man, I might have a lot more work because of this monster thing. At least we know about it before it can really harm us." "Yeah," said Marco. "Marco, you seriously have a problem. One day you tell me you're having a late night burrito, and now I see you with a breakfast burrito." "No I don't, I'm just having a little bit of a spree," Marco said. "Yeah sure," said Star, "but speaking of problems, your gonna have a big one if you don't get home for your dad's birthday." "It's 10 in the morning. I don't need to worry." "Um, isn't it at 12?" Star said. "No it's at 12… wait it's at 12! Oh man I gotta get ready," said Marco. "Too bad I can't come, my mom has me strictly on Mewni now that Eclipsia is here." "Yeah, I'll be sure to come back soon as possible," Marco said to Star. In his haste, Marco threw on his dress tux and pants. He needed to be there at least at 11. He left as quickly as possible and before stepping through the portal he said to Star, "Bye Star, see you later." She smiled at him and replied with, "You are going to owe me big time."

Once back home, he found himself inside of his room. He eyed his secretive hiding spot for his new double life and thought to himself, "If someone else could see this situation, they would think that I'm actually experienced at this." He laughed to himself and headed downstairs, "Hi mom, hey dad, so how is this party coming along." "Nice to see that you came early Marco," said Mrs. Diaz, "but everything has been set up already. Your dad invited some family, work friends, and Gustav was able to come too," she pointed behind her. The instant Marco saw him, he was up off of the couch and speed walking towards him, "Marco," said Gustav in his usual accent as he gave him a bear hug, "it's been a while. So let me give you the usual, come on." Marco began to follow, intrigued by whatever show Gustav had for him to watch. "Now, I know that when it comes to Japanese things, you usually don't like them but this one is pretty good." Marco looked at the T.V. screen and said, "Assassination Classroom?" "Yeah, basically they have to kill this really powerful teacher of theirs before the end of the school year. It might not sound like much at first, but there are plenty of twists and turns in the show that keep your mind running." "Yeah, so how did you find this exactly?" Marco asked. "Oh," Gustav began, "I saw it in the county right next by here." "So what your trying to say is that you found another family full of softies that would take you in?" Marco asked. Gustav giggled guiltily. They watched the show until 12. "Wow, that's a pretty good show," said Marco, amazed. "Told chu so, Marco," Gustav said.

Overall, the party was pretty good, it was mainly Marco and Gustav hanging out while all the adult had their little "grown-up talks". The party was supposed to last until 3, but Marco and Gustav ended up taking a walk at 2. "I heard that you got a girlfriend," Gustav said with a smirk. "Bit too late when it comes to information Gustav," Marco said, "we broke up just recently." "Oh, well at least you're not in a bad mood," said Gustav. They headed back so that Marco could give his dad his presents. Just in time as well, like always, to get his presents in. Marco said,"You have that present and one other from me. So hurry up and open it." It was a collection of tickets for the many maraca bands that Mr. Diaz liked, "Wow Marco, just like you to go above and beyond. So is the next one a specialty present then? I mean it can't get much better than this." "I'm going to stay here for tonight and leave tomorrow evening. I just thought that you 2 were starting to get lonely over here, so I'll stay a full 24 hours with you," said Marco. "Like I said, above and beyond Marco." Mr. Diaz smiled and it spread like a plaque to their little group of 3.

The next day, they all decided to go out shopping for some new clothes for Marco's dad. Although, inside the mall, they all heard a loud, "BOOM!" Most of the people in the store started to circle back, only to find a hole in the middle of the mall, three figures standing dead still, eying the electronics store across from them. Marco pulled out his scissors, "Don't worry guys." Marco opened a dimensional rift and they jumped through.

They landed inside of his room, "Alright go check the news, I'll check the web," he said but then thought guiltily, "Another lie, how many do I need to give." Once they were downstairs Marco suited up, he wasn't about to let such lowlives off the hook. He made a portal back and leaped through. They were inside the store, ransacking it for parts. Marco noticed something a little off, their movements were precise, a little too much, and that each one had what looked like gold on the tips of their hairs. There were two females and one male. Marco took off, unsheathing his sword and striking the female taking apart one of the display computers. He had swung at her torso but she caught the blade, Marco pulled back and put her in a headlock. He hit the top of her chest with his elbow, and for some reason, it felt like he was hitting a car door. But Marco noticed her arms droop and ramed her headfirst into the ground. He started towards the other two, but the woman was back up and running straight for him. A stray arrow hit her in the head, and as it went straight through, Marco saw that it was a robot. He looked at the wall and saw a kid who looked about his age with a bow in hand. "Hey, can you do that whole violence thing?" Marco asked the sword. It glowed with the word violence and was suddenly a bit heavier. The male robot threw a punch at Marco, but he took it to his advantage. He cut off the incoming arm and then did the same to its right leg. It was in a kneel, so Marco went along its left side and behead the creature. When the female tried to grab him, he flipped her over his shoulder and onto a display case, the glass shattered, and as it did the robot found itself with a sword through its neck.

Marco began to walk towards the figure who helped him, "Thanks," he said once again in his adult voice, "so who are you anyway?" "These guys ravaged my dad's store while he was on his break. I followed them here to get back the stuff they took. Also yes, I did know that they were robots. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if someone else's blood was on my hands," he said pointing to his bow, "I picked up archery a while back and got a bow to practice with. Luckily, I'm picky about real ammo instead of that fake stuff," the boy said, "Oh, my name is," he leaned in to whisper, "Florence. I can't have all these people knowing who I am or else I'm in for a real surprise back home when all the paparazzi show up at my doorstep." "I go by Failsafe in this field of work." Marco said, "So anyway is this just a one-time thing or would you be willing to take down a few more of these guys." Florence responded with, "I can't refuse an offer to make my summer vacation just that much more interesting. Here's my cell, let's meet up tomorrow okay?" Marco chuckled, "Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan."

Marco made the rift go to Star's old room instead of his so that he could get a chance to change, guessing that his parents were in his room right about now. He hid the get up underneath the bed and walked out into the hallway. "Marco!" said. "Where have you been, there was just an incident at the mall and you go running off like that?" "I was only at the police station, telling them about the mall incident," Marco said. "And it took 10 minutes for you to do all that?" Mr. Diaz asked. "There was a bit of a wait," said Marco as he scratched his head. Mrs. Diaz took over, "You need to stop running away like that or else I'll have to take those scissors." "Okay, okay. Sorry mom, next time I'll tell you first." "Yeah yeah, you're going to be spending the rest of the day on house arrest." Mrs. Diaz said. "Could've been worse I guess," Marco thought. "Wait a second, are those new pants, and did you take off your hoodie?" Mrs. Diaz instigated. "Oh yeah, I got these sweatpants a little while ago, and summertime can make hoodies a sweatfest," said Marco. "Mmhmm, all right," Mrs. Diaz concluded, "think that you could make a few nachos for a movie Marco?" "Yeah I'm on it," said Marco as he headed downstairs. "Man this business can really get you jittered," thought Marco. "Like how right about now, they have a slight chance as to finding out that I hid a sword and an outfit underneath Star's old bed." He chuckled anxiously. Dinner went on pretty much pre-planned: they had the main course, then a movie with nachos. After that, Marco decided to check out a few episodes of the show Gustav showed him, then head to sleep. Marco thought about the incident as another mystery case that would keep him up, yet it didn't. For some reason, Marco could rest easy with a helping hand being lent to him. It was reassuring having most of the pressure taken off of his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Florence was lying in bed the same as Marco. He was a Caucasian boy with dirty blonde hair. His father would always tease him about it since both he and his mother have full blonde hair. He would always say that when his mother was pregnant, she had a sweet tooth for chocolate and it made his hair permanently stained the color it was. He was in a simple family of 2. Him, his older sister, his mother, and his dad, and yes, everyone besides him had full blonde hair. Making Florence the natural oddball of the family. His dad had gotten the stolen items back, and ended up not having to pay to much. Afterall, insurance covered most of it. He thought back to the vigilante, he hadn't him of him before. But, in a way, he felt happy that he was noticed by someone who was able to push his life in a certain direction. Florence had come to the conclusion that he attended school in order to work his way to the best job that he could think of: being a kid. He thought that the goal he should reach for is to be a true kid in his life. To have no worries and no concerns. Now, Florence could use this side gig while he was running towards the goal line, in order to be able to keep a recollective of what he should be like when he is able to live like a child. It sort off made him feel unhinged when his entire life was planned out like that, and this is where his core sense of adventure came from.

The next day, began like any normal day, but when Marco saw his chance to get out of the house, he used it. He needed to call Florence and tell him to meet him at the gas station closest to the pear at 2. Marco had got up early in order to put his stuff back into its original hiding spot. So now, whenever Marco needed it he could open and portal to his room, change clothes, and get ready for action. Just as he was about to call, he got a call from Star, "Marco listen, I got your text about spending the night, but I really have some stuff that I need you to do, so hurry back." "Sorry Star, I'll get back as soon as I can, I promised them a full 24 hours," Marco said. Star sighed, "Alright, but tomorrow you're doing not only your work but mine as well." "I'm not even a princess, so how am I-." Marco began. "Technically you are, princess Turdina," said Star and she then hung up.

Marco sighed, he was really starting to begin to push his luck. Now, that Marco had time to think it over, he decided to go ahead and get dressed in his outfit and to just change the time to 1, seen as he was being pressed for time. He called Florence and, in his adult voice, said, "Hey, meet me by that gas station nearby the pear at 1." "1?," Florence asked, "Ain't that kind of early?" "Yeah well, I'm kind of pressed for time right now so it has to be early." "Well alright then," said Florence, "by the way I have a great idea for a costume. Just you wait." Marco laughed, he hadn't even put too much thought into his costume, and here this kid is, making full designs and everything. Marco waited outside of the gas station for Florence. When Marco saw him, Florence started running towards him with an open notebook. The design had the same maniac as Marco's hoodie, but this time it was white and had a smirk spread across its face. Looking as if whatever someone else did around it didn't even matter in the slightest bit. The skeleton, also white, had the rib cage connected to the arms, which had been spread out. The costume had many stray pieces of fabric dangling a little bit above the shin and was all black except for the skeleton part. "Pretty good, wonder where you got the design from," Marco said with a smirk, it didn't really matter though since he couldn't tell with Marco's mask. "Yeah, I wonder. But you should really consider revising your costume. I mean I was gonna get you to get my costume since the clerk won't see your actual face. But you should thin yours out and get rid of that zipper. You could even have that sheath built into it," Florence pointed towards his dagger sheath, "I mean you can't say that it wouldn't be convenient. Anyway, we should get them at that shop just a little bit up the road." "You know what, sure why not, let's get these costumes prepped and then go over this whole robot invasion," said Marco.

They stood outside of the store discussing how they should go about tracking whoever created them. "We could probably see whoever has been buying metals like gold and track em' that way," said Florence. "Someone like that probably has more than one ID, and probably bought from many different stores," Marco said, "but we could get a hold of one of the robots and try to find out what signal it was connected to." "But, what do we do if it's satellite or if there's more than one?" Florence asked, throwing his head back in frustration. "Well one thing is for sure: whoever this is, they live in Echo Creek," Marco said. "How do you know?" "This is the only place that has been hit by a string of robberies like this, and according to the police reports, the routes were headed straight in the direction of the shops. Meaning they have to be familiar with how things are around here," Marco said to Florence. "Hmm, yeah that makes sense, and it makes things easier," Florence said. Marco's alarm went off, "All right, the costumes are done. I'll head in there to pick them up." "Umm, don't you need cash," Florence said. "No, I got it covered."

"So I owe you twice now then," said Florence. Marco laughed, "Yeah guess so." Once they got the cloths Florence headed for the gas station, "Hey, aren't you-," he stopped when he saw the dimensional rift, "What the heck is that!" "I got these scissors from a lady named Hekapoo, you'd be lucky to meet her someday," said Marco. "Man, that's not fair in the slightest bit." Marco stepped to change in a nice bedroom, while Florence had to hide his face and change in the public restroom. When they re-grouped though the first thing that came to Florence's mind was what his hero name should be, "How did you get the name Failsafe?" "It's the name of my sword." "Talk about an easy lifestyle, I'm thinking that I should call myself something like: The bowsmith." "How about Bow and Quiver," said Marco. "I got it! Quiver quickly," said Florence. "Hmm, I like it, pretty good." "Much better than Failsafe if you ask me," said Florence. "Hey now let's not get carried away. My name is symbolism, yours just says that your good with a bow and arrow," Marco rebuttal. "Yeah yeah, you'll be seeing my name all over the papers pretty soon," said Florence. "Hey what time is it?" Marco asked. "4:30 why." "Heh, no reason it's just that I ought to go," Marco said. "Alright, the next time we meet, this ringmaster guy will be in the palm of our hands!" Florence said as he waved to Marco. Marco went home and changed, and then went straight to Mewni. "Hey Marco, took you long enough," Star said as Marco came through the portal. She began to push him towards an office space with papers stacked. "You can come out when all of your work is done." "Wait, Star this'll take me all nigh-," Star shut the door behind her. Marco sighed and got started.

I wanted to introduce a character that I felt like could hold a real prominent role in the story. I feel like this chapter really sets the stage, and will let me do much more with the overall story of Failsafe. New characters, twists, etc.

* * *

 **So I tried to space this one out as well**


	5. Chapter 5

"Humans, you surpass them and then they try to bring you back down. But I'll make this world take the form it was always destined for. I'll make a race without problems, and without issues. No more negative emotion, nothing to slow the evolution of those who can call themselves perfect. Living in a perfect world," the ringmaster turned and pressed his computer mouse. "But for now, I'm stuck digging up graves. I'd love to go digging for a name, those kids," he smiled, "are in for real pain."

Marco ended up working till 12 and the second he got out of that office, he went straight to bed. Little did he know that it would be 15 minutes until the bombs were set off. That morning it was all over the news, that Mewni got a two for one deal after they took over the factory. The bombs went off in the library as well as one of the factories from which Mewni makes its weapons. Apparently, there was a message to Failsafe on the ground near both of the buildings, "Don't forget that there's now more than one life in your hands." Marco sighed and thought, "How is it that I always get one problem after the other. There aren't any clues on this guy right now, but even so, I can't wait around to find one either. I need to get these people before they finish their plans," Marco threw his head back over the couch.

"Things have gotten real angsty after Toffee took over," Star said as she walked into the break room. Well, it was considered to be a break room, but it was really the most comfortable place in the kingdom. Couches, leaning chairs, you name it. "Yeah, it's been pretty bad with all these new monsters joining the cause to "revise Mewni"." "Well, we've had some good," Star as she pointed at a picture of Failsafe, "if you ask me, he should continue his investigation anyway. I mean they're going to hurt way more people if he doesn't contribute." "Big talk for someone who hasn't even met him," Marco chuckled, not at himself, but at the irony, once again, of the situation. It felt like he had her guessing, only to never guess right. "I should at least thank him, yes, but a princess gets pretty busy at a time like this." "Wait, the only people with details on situations like this are royalty and the royal investigators," Marco thought. He said, "Don't tell me you forgot about your luck." She smiled, "No, but we need to do something about yours. It could get you out of death it's so good." "That's just what it is to be Marco."

Now that Marco could go after both, he needed to make a choice: the ringmaster or the boss. The boss had been doing this thing for a while, and the ringmaster had just gotten started. He wondered if Florence would go with him, after all, he had a grudge against the ringmaster. Marco left the break room and headed to his own. He called Florence, "Hey, there isn't to much evidence on the ringmaster, so would you help me take care of a separate case?" "Yeah, I haven't heard of any problems nearby here though," said Florence. "Yeah, you know those scissors? The case isn't on Earth, it's back where I actually started with the Failsafe get up," said Marco. "So your not from Earth?" Florence said. "Yeah I'm from Earth, I just got caught up in another dimension's problem." "Okay then, I guess it's an I help you, you help me sort of thing. Sure I'll come by," said Florence. "All right then," said Marco, "Go to the gas station at 2." He hung up and Star came in, "Who was that?" "Just a friend," said Marco. "Hey I'm heading out, but could you help me with this sleep problem of mine later?" "Sure," said Marco. When Star left, Marco needed a way to pass the time, so what better to do than squire for the laundry knight. It was pretty hard, everything had to be precise and exact. But, it definitely kept Marco busy, and he was able to wash his costume in secret as well.

He made portals for his clothes before he left so that he could get straight home and change. It was 10 times better sliding into the costume than having it slide onto him. He went out of his bedroom window and started heading towards the gas station. Florence was there, in costume, waiting. "So what is this off-world place exactly," said Florence, obviously excited. "It's called Mewni and we're going to need to talk things over with its princess." "I wonder what royalty is like," Florence said in his own little world. "Yeah yeah come on," said Marco opening the rift. They stood on a mountainside, Marco could be traced back if he went to his room on Mewni. "Wow, we're going there!" Florence said as he pointed to the Butterfly castle. "Yep," said Marco. Florence began running towards the castle. "Hey wai-," Marco started to say but decided to run along with him. "We should go through a window, the worst thing that the guards will do is surround you and then get someone to report you to the queen," said Marco. "Really, are you sure they don't just like the case your working on." "Maybe," said Marco.

They climbed up and the guards did just that, "See told you," Marco said to Florence and then turned to face one of the guards, "could you tell princess Star that I want to see her." A guard said, "How would we be able to tell whether or not you're the real Failsafe?" Marco shrugged and told them, "I just need to ask the princess a question." Star walked in and told the guards to stand down. "Hey I've heard about you, the Failsafe guy, right, but who is that?" Star said. "I'm the one the only cupid. We can go out sometime if you like, get to know each other better," said Florence. "Ah…, no," said Star. Florence sighed and drooped his head low. "Just call him Quivy," said Marco. "Alllrighty then. So what did you need to see me for?" Star said. "Well I was thinking, the only one with classified information on the recent bombings would be you. So I was wondering if we would be able to take a look at it," said Marco. "All right, I guess so. As long as it helps in the long run," said Star as she led them towards the office of the royal investigators.

There were many papers atop a desk, but Star went to one of the desks on the side and, with ease, pulled out a folder out of a drawer. Marco and Florence both looked at it hungrily. Inside was much one what they already knew, but there was a picture. It looked like a teenage Mewman was in it and he was standing in in front of the flames. The picture was from behind but Marco saw that he had a white cloth jacket, it was open and flailing in the wind. He had black curly hair and camo pants. There was knife-dagger cross, like a switchblade on both of his hands, which held the complexion of milk chocolate. As in actually on his hands, the hilt of the blade reached the base of his palm. "This picture was taken by the librarian who worked there. Luckily, she was just getting off work and was able to snap a photo. There's been a rumor going around that he's the son of one of our royal knights. But I trust her. I wouldn't think that she would be so careless with a child. If this boy was her's, I would've noticed her taking quite a few off days," said Star. "I think I know who you're talking about. She's one of the higher up guards, and she was part of the group that surrounded me. Same hair, color, and stance. He could very well be," Marco said.

"So basically, we got a bad guy, a message, something else. Now I don't know about you, but I wanna see the something else. So hurry up and flip the page," said Florence. Marco sighed and flipped the page. There were documents of gangs suddenly not attacking anyone in different districts. "All right, a lead. I'm gonna guess that he is using those scissors that you have Failsafe and that he is probably going to head towards one of the more successful gangs. I read the paper about him getting found out, he probably wants to finish things up quickly now," said Florence. "Probably, there are only two in the district that he's been hitting up recently, and they're relatively close to one another. If he hits another district, he'll lose two potential scores. So as long as we get the royal guards to attack gangs in the districts surrounding him, he'll probably press his luck. Then we go in to attack, and just to be safe princess," said Marco, Star looked at him, "could we split up? Like you attack one gang and we attack the other. You could bring that prince of yours along if you want." Florence nodded in understanding, "Of course, girls love me. This one just had a boyfriend already." "Just ignore him," said Marco. "Yeah," Star said as she scooted away from him, "sounds like a plan." "Alrighty then," a Marco said as he closed the folder. "Let me just call a friend of mind and tell him what's going on. You know you sound a lot like him when he's in his adult voice, only yours isn't all about charm." Star said. Marco instantly took his phone and turned it off frantically, he sighed. Florence whispered in his ear, "Now I'm one step closer to finding out who you really are, friend of the princess." He smiled and walked out as did Marco.

They were in position, Marco and Florence that is, ready to jump the gang as soon as they decided to attack. This was a simple house raid. This was going to easy. Florence jumped off of the rooftop, he had changed out his arrows with the blunt ones that they sell for training. They still hurt like heck, and you'll have a bruise for at least a week. He headshot two of the six-man squad on his way down. Marco went through the back door, and, with his sword in its peace mode, he slashed one across the back and stabbed another. He put the sword in his left hand, and with his right threw the dagger whilst running at his next opponent. He swept his legs, and then ax kicked him into the ground. With all six down, they hid the bodies and got back on the roof, but not before Marco took a stray knife, thinking that it would come in handy.

Florence was about to radio Star when they saw him. The kid in the picture. He had the jacket, a red shirt, and camo pants. He was looking around, wondering why the gang wasn't carrying out their house raid. Marco threw the knife, the kid dodged but was meet with 2 arrows coming his way. He caught the first one with his right hand and it switched off to his left, using it in order to block the incoming arrow. Marco and Florence jumped off the roof and started circling him. He pulled out 2 heavy revolvers, they were closer to a pistol with only six shots though, they had a curved hilt that led to a roll of six rounds. The barrel was average and thick, the guns were more solid than not, it was in the shape of a hexagon. Marco and Florence went inside the house. As he was shooting, Marco said "I think his shots are made of compiled, or really dense energy. I can block it with my sword, but you'll need to get him from afar." "My specialty," said Florence.

Marco ran in, blocking the occasional 2 or 3 shots that came his way. Florence was keeping their opponent on his feet, while Marco got in close. Marco slashed and his foe pulled out one of the daggers with his left hand. He blocked and tried to shoot, but Marco pulled back and spun to attack his back. The teen flipped sideways over the blade and put up his gun to replace it with another dagger. Marco ran towards him and tried to stab him, but he dodged. Marco put a hand on the ground and kicked with both of his legs. The teen skidded back and looked up only to find Marco above, about to stab. He rolled and when he was up Marco tried to swing once again, but the teen slid and slashed Marco's stomach. Once behind him, he hit in between Marco's neck and his shoulders, directly on the tip of his shoulder blade. "Ahh," Marco said as said turned to face his opponent. The teen moved in for a kick to Marco's stomach, but Marco caught his leg, pulled him in, and took his arm. Marco got behind him and tried to flip him to the ground, but he landed on his legs. Marco slid and kicked them both. Once the teen was fell down to the ground, Marco used his little height above the opponent to get an advantage in order to elbow his chest, "Gaah," said the teen as his breath was forcefully taken from him. He threw Marco off of him and as Marco got up he was only crouched. He pulled out his gun and shot, it landed and Marco rolled along the ground. Just as he was about to shoot again, he was struck in the head by a stray arrow. "Got, em," said Florence. He walked over to Marco and helped him up. They looked over to the kid, as he was getting up.

Stray cards began to fly in around him, as a figure dressed in all purple started walking towards them. A purple tux, pants, and hat. "Who are you?" Marco asked. He turned, he had a human-like face, only his veins were dark purple and the rest of his face was covered with brain-like wrinkles. His complexion was latino for the most part but was obvious that he was a monster. He was surrounded by cards and wielded dimensional scissors in his hands. He said, "If only you had asked that guard for my name you would have it, but because you didn't you're going to have to keep calling me the boss." Marco started to try and chase him but a wall of cards suddenly appeared in front of him. He noticed that they each had transmitters on them, "He's controlling them," Marco said. Just as he raised his sword, the cards were through the dimensional rift. No trace of them ever being there. The kid was gone as well, and the street was empty. "Man, what just happened. These guys are for real. I feel like we should stick to this case for now, or else things could really turn dangerous," said Florence. "Yeah that's for sure," Marco responded.

As Star radioed Florence to rendezvous at Butterfly castle, Marco set off. Star said that one of the squadrons never responded to the call. The danger was getting all too real. Marco guessed that they were either kidnapped or dead. Back at the castle, they all went over the details. In total 5 gangs had been stopped, 3 by the royal guards, 1 by Star, and 1 by Florence and Marco.

"We saw the boss, apparently he decided to book it after all of the gangs went down. He used dimensional scissors in order to get both him and his lackey out of there. We think that it was them two and maybe one other person who was in the district. The other one was probably the one who took down the lost squadron, but it could've been the boss before he noticed that he was outnumbered," said Florence to Star. They were in a battle planning station, discussing the details of what happened to them. It was about 6 o'clock, and Marco knew that he needed to wrap this up so that he wouldn't miss dinner, or else Star would notice. "I think we got him in a good position, I mean if we can predict what he'll do like we did tonight that is," said Marco. "Yeah, let's stick to this approach until things change," said Star, "and let's heightened security too. Like having law enforcement on high alert at all times, and sanctioning of the best routes for," Star made visible quotation marks, "big scores." "Sounds like a plan then! All right, Imma head home for dinner. Unless" he looked at Star, "you wanna go to a fancy restaurant." Star said, "Um, you know I have a boyfriend right?" Florence's head drooped, "Yeah yeah, all right see you all later then. Marco, can you send me back to that gas station?" "All right," Marco said as he got up.

With Florence out, Marco made a portal to Dimension X so that Star wouldn't know that he was from Earth. Once he made a portal back home, he changed out of his costume and made a portal to his room on Mewni. And just so Star wouldn't get suspicious, he brought a pre-made burrito that had been sitting in his mini fridge for a while. Marco started to walk down the stairs to the entrance of the throne room. The table was set and the King and Queen were both waiting on Star. He sat down eying the giant heap of corn on the table. Moon asked, "Marco, is that one of those meat rolls you always eat from Earth?" Star walked in, overhearing the conversation, "Yep, Marco has a huge addition to burritos." "I do not," said Marco, "I'm just having a spree." "MMhmm sure you are," said Star. "What is that suppose to mean!" They laughed, and soon Marco laughed too. He felt at home.

The boss stood in front of the glass, the temple they were in had a section for prisoners. After a few adjustments, the boss was able to fit one-sided glass into the space were the bars should've been. Effectively turning it into a wall of reinforced glass. "These people in here are all that we got out of our mission. Do you know what that means, we failed. We were supposed to get soldiers, not liabilities. I not mad because of that though. I'm glad actually, because you're out there making rivals. I wonder, is this Failsafe guy too much for you," said the boss. "I'm fine one on one, all I need to do is get his partner out of the picture," said the teen. "Are you though? Tell me this, Isaac, would you consider him an easy target, because I don't think so. I think he is your equal, and because of that, I think you could get a whole lot stronger. There isn't much in this world that can do that as effectively as a rivalry. Being the emotional creatures that we are, we push ourselves based on our emotions. And if you're determined enough, you'll reach an all new level. Once you do, my knight might become full-fledged rook." He left, and Issac just stood there, not knowing how to deal with the foreign concept. Now, he had more than one thing pushing him forward, and he couldn't decide on which option to side with.

Chapter 6 will probably be on Monday, and I got all the chapters planned out too. So don't worry, I'm not running out of ideas anytime soon. That pretty much it though, sorry I had this so late, I try to get these things done at 5 o' clock on weekends and will still try to make that happen. Weekdays though I'll probably have either no chapter or it'll be in pretty late (like 9 to 10). This kind of finishes the setup portion, so expect chapters to get longer, I'm shooting for at least 5,000 words.

* * *

 **So I did the same on this one that I did on the others, going back I'm glad that I starting working more on the chapters because there were plenty of errors that I didn't even notice before. Honestly, there could still be some but I feel like Grammarly is really helping.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Ahh, nothing gets much better than a Hardee's breakfast right before a singing competition," said Florence. "Yeah," said Marco, he thought back to last night, "apparently Star has been waking up to random things appearing all over her room. Just recently, a bunch of random cat-faced people were just lying around in there. Florence asked. "Cat fac-?" Just wait," said Marco. Florence scooted up and took a slip out of his drink. For breakfast, Marco got (of course) a breakfast burrito, for which he insisted would include beans, onions, and jalapeno peppers, and a coffee. Meanwhile, Florence got a chicken biscuit, hashbrowns, and an orange juice, for which he insisted would be put into a normal medium sized cup. He had been going on about how it was his secret deal because they charged you for a medium drink and don't overprice it like they would in their traditional size. "She's been hearing a strange noise in her sleep, and had like, seriously weird dreams," said Marco. "Hmm, is it a royal future vision of like, her entire life. Think about it, it could be like a thing that runs in the family," suggested Florence. "Ah, no. I do believe that it has something to do with magic, but not that. Where did that even come from?" said Marco. "Well I mean it was the best I had." "Yeah, she's gotten more and more tired recently. So, she slept in this morning, and actually, that's why I'm here," said Marco. "Yeah, it isn't really normal for you to be the one to do fun things. No offense, but I knew something was up," said Florence. "What, I do fun things," said Marco. "Sure, but it's not like you suggest them," Florence said.

The conversation hung in the air for a little bit, but eventually, Marco asked, "Hmm… anyway has the ringmaster behind the machines shown himself recently?" "No, he's been keeping his head down recently. He's not in the news, online, or even just on talk around town," said Florence. "Well, it looks like we made the right choice to stick to Mewni then." "Yeah, but you didn't make the right choice to keep your identity from me. I mean look around, we're in a Hardee's and you're dressed in a vigilante costume." "You'll find out someday, just not right now," said Marco. "Mmhmm sure," said Florence, "so where do we look now that we have the whole gang situation handled?" "Well if law enforcement scoured the factory, then we really have no hints." "We will if we take a few documents, from law enforcement," said Florence with a smirk. "What, no! That's just a plain and simple crime," said Marco. "You know, some crimes can do way more good than bad. Come on, I can go alone if you want me to." "No, we don't need to right now. If it gets out of hand, sure why not, but not right now." "Alright, I guess that's fair. So that means that it's pretty much a resting day for everyone," said Florence. "Hey don't get too cocky now," said Marco. "Your kidding, this is one of our few breaks and your not gonna use it?" Florence asked. "Ok Ok, I see your point." "Yeah, you do. All right, if anything happens, tell me, but until then I'm on break," he said as he turned to leave the Hardee's. "Actually, could you use those dimensional scissors to bring me to that gas station?" "Hmm, I dunno, I am on break after all," said Marco stubbornly. "Please, the gas station is legit down the road from my house." "Alright," said Marco unwillingly.

After the portal closed, Marco decided to do his usual routine. He went home, changed, and headed to Mewni. "Hey Star, how you holding up?" Marco asked. "I'm doing pretty good. You know, pony's thinking of having the three of us visit Saint Olga's some time soon." "Sounds good, man has it been a while. So, I'm guessing that you and pony are going to gossip about ALL the latest things there," said Marco in an exaggerated gesture. "You bet!" Star responded. "Well don't let me stop you, I'll either hang out with Tom or meet a friend on Earth." "All right then, see ya later Marco," said Star. "Hmm, what to do… I got nothing," Marco thought. "Florence said that he had a neighborhood singing competition to go to. I could check it out as Marco, trip him up a bit when I finally let him in on who I am. Yeah, why not."

It was indeed a neighborhood thing. They were using a concert stage inside of Marco's school, so naturally, he was invited free of charge. The lights had been turned off and the theater room was already set up when Marco walked inside with: chairs, sheets of informational papers, and lights. He took one of the papers and saw that there were 12 contestants, Florence was number 8. "Hmm, could turn out to be interesting." A man walked up on the stage, it was wooden, had curtains on both sides and it was about 2 feet off of the ground. "I would like to announce the beginning of the official musical competition of Echo Creek," said the announcer. Marco looked around, there were many people found his school there, but things would get complicated if they found out that he was there. The only one that Marco might be able to trust was Janna. This was because he knew that as long as he held his end of any bargain that she would make, then even if she connected his visit to Earth with the ringmaster she wouldn't pry too much for details and could keep what she knew a secret. But, she was all to close to Jackie, so Marco sat back and watched. Surprisingly, the judges allowed the first contestant sing "X Gon' Give It To Ya", but not before warning the audience. He was pretty good, but Marco knew that he was biased. Afterall, he rarely ever listened to rap. But because of this, Marco's experience wasn't the best. "I don't get why rap is so popular these days," Marco thought. The contest had just gotten to contestant number 4, and she did pretty well, even if she had to play two characters. 5 was just garbage, imagine a flute, but right when the beat gets good, the player screams into it. Finally, number 6 rolled around, Florence came up to the stage, "This song came to my head a while back, and you'll be able to guess why." He started, "She shot, she shot me, bang bang she shot me. She shot me, she shot me…" "Oh no," Marco thought, "this is about Star." He did pretty well, compared to the others (except 5 of course). "She was walking around with a loaded shotgun. Ready to fire me a hot one," Florence said. "I almost wish that I didn't even go to Mewni with Florence last week. Hmm, no make that almost a definitely," Marco thought. When he finished, Marco had faith that he would come first, but not that he would ever get Marco's respect again. As it turned out, no-one really came close to the girl who sang "Paris" and Florence. So with it down to the 2 of them, they did a vote by hands. Clap for who you think should win. Marco didn't want to, but he owed Florence for taking out the teenage guy. Of course, Florence won. The prize was pretty bland, but it was the second year of them doing this, so it kind of made sense. It was money, $400 total. "He can pay for his own food now," Marco thought, "instead of "alright I'll leave the check to you" every time." After the prize was given out, the lights got turned back on, and they got started on clean-up pretty early for an official event. "Hey," Marco turned his head to see Florence, "have I seen you here before." Marco panicked, "Umm… no no, you probably haven't, this is the first sing off I've been to, ever been to actually." "Ok, well I'm Florence nice to meet you err…" "Crap!" Marco thought. "I'm Gabriel, you were really good on stage by the way," Marco said. "If there are 2 things that I'm good at in this world, it would have to be archery and singing," said Florence. "Hmm neat, well I should get going," said Marco. "Yeah same here, see ya, Gabe," said Florence. "Yeah, I really need to get a lottery ticket," Marco thought on his way out of the school.

It was about 3:30 when Marco got back to Mewni. He looked around all the living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms but Marco was unable to find anyone. He finally, found a squire running around the castle frantically, it was Higgs. "Hey, where is everyone?" Marco asked. "Didn't you hear? They're all up in the war planning room discussing what happened with the monster guild," said Higgs. "Wait, what happened?" "You know that squadron they took?" Higgs asked. "Yeah," said Marco. They're threatening to kill them if Failsafe doesn't show up to fight one of their members." "When did this news come out and where's Failsafe?" "It was about an hour ago, but no-one knows where he is." "Thanks, I got to go help in any way that I can," said Marco. He started down the hallway, but took a sharp turn right, towards a royal guard's quarters. He opens the portal to change, he had to go, fast. He called Florence, looking forward to an extra hand. "Hey, go to the gas station and hurry. Mewni is in trouble and we need to go fast. I'll go up the street towards it and you go down." "Wait, where wha-," Florence began but Marco hung up. He opened a portal and started running as fast as he could. It didn't take long before he was able to see Florence in costume, "Come on we need to go, just read this," said Marco as he handed Florence a newspaper. When they arrived, they headed straight for the conference room and burst the door open. "What took you 2 so long? It's been an hour!" Star said. "I had an… interesting singing competition," said Florence. "And I was just busy with, this life, but my life life," said Marco. "Hmm, I wonder, are you secretly part of an organization to bring down Mewni?" All heads turned towards Marco, "What, no! I DO have a life outside of this ya know." "Hmm, maybe you do maybe you don't," Florence said pointing to his head. "Ok, let's just get on with this so we can go!" Marco said. "Right, our plan is: you two will signal us once you're in. We'll head in afterward and take over the wastewater control facility," said Star. Florence asked, "Wait a minute, where is the location again?" "A wastewater control facility," said Star. "Like for sewage? Man my luck is wack," said Florence. "We have no time to waste, are you with us or not?" Queen Moon asked. Marco looked across the table, it had a normal width, but the length went from one side of the room to the other. The room was lit with blue lights, and on the walls, there were many maps, documents, and investigative charts. "Yeah, let's go set out towards victory, am I right!" Florence exclaimed. This roused all of the knights in the room and in turn they said, "Right!"

The wastewater control facility was on the Northwestern border of Mewni. It was in the middle of the forest, but no one could say that it was well hidden. The front doors were wide open, so the monsters were seemingly inside. "Well, this is it. See you on the flipside," said Florence. The two of them walked inside. It was a normal station, there were filters on the right and further cleaning on the left. There was a control panel in the middle and across from it, there was a door leading towards the drainage pipes. Around the two of them, monster stood to block Florence from going through the door. "You can handle them right?" Marco said. "You bet!" said Florence as Marco headed towards the door. On the other side, Isaac was standing on the far side of the room, it was pretty empty with the pipes running along the sides. "I have a good reason for this ya know, and if killing you helps, then that's that," said Isaac. "You'd need a pretty good reason if you think I'm gonna drop dead like that." "Now my reason isn't that good, but it's mostly just important to me." "Guess I'll just have to find out for myself just what this reason is," said Marco. Isaac pulled out his guns. "He wants to give me a disadvantage and put me on the defensive," said Marco. He looked around, there wasn't any good cover, ultimately he would be pressed. He pulled out his sword, and the fight began.

Isaac's shots were quick and precise. Marco could do 2 or 3 shots but not 5. He was hit in his arm after the entourage. He started running for the pipes, bullets flying by. He ran along one of the many pipes and jumped. He blocked the incoming bullets and rolled next to Isaac. Marco slashed and Isaac jumped back, once again getting his daggers. Marco ran and slashed again, Isaac blocked. They locked eyes, Marco pushed upward with his sword, but Isaac went to the left. Marco kicked and Isaac put up his hands, skidding across the floor. Marco put his sword into his left hand and took out his dagger. He ran in a stabbing position with his left hand. Isaac ran to the left of him, trying to be able to shoot again. Marco threw his dagger and Isaac barely dodged, but it was too late. Marco was above, switched his sword into his other hand, about to kick. Issac put up his hands and Marco hit them a total of 5 times before flipping over Issac and slashing at him. Isaac turned and tried to block, but Marco blocked his daggers and punched Isaac directly in the mouth. He staggered back, glaring at Marco. Isaac went on the offensive. He ran towards Marco, trying to close the gap. Marco readied himself and Isaac struck with his right hand. He armed to slash Marco from his right shoulder to his left foot. Marco blocked and Isaac turned to kick his face. Marco ducked and Issac used his elbow to hit Marco's back. Marco buckled and kicked upwards when he landed he spun right to strike Isaac. Isaac was about to block but Marco threw both his own and Isaac's weapons upward. Marco was about to punch when Isaac jabbed. Marco turned right and grabbed his arm. He went in to punch and Isaac used his left hand to block. Marco pulled in his arm and swept Isaac's legs from behind. Isaac jumped and tried to kick Marc. But Marco turned and was about to use his other leg to hit Isaac's abdomen. Isaac was stuck and feel to the ground, but he pulled out one of his guns with his left arm. He shot at Marco while he tried to get up. Marco rolled in the direction that the shot was fired and he did a full body turn on his arm. Marco ran for his dagger as Issac put up his. Marco got his dagger but was shot in his foot. He began to limp and had to block the incoming shots. "It's not your lucky day is it. Well goodbye," said Isaac with a smile. Marco thought frantically, "Come on think, what can you do right now? Ahh, come on...If this peace mode makes it so that force is spread out, what happens if I try and force it to come together. How would I do that though? Would I have to use my own energy? Of course, if my energy is added it will give the force shape, or make whatever the force is acting on, have shape." Marco threw the dagger and ran behind it to the right, Issac was about to start firing and Marco put his hand next to the dagger. A purple object was beginning to form and Marco jumped. He blocked the incoming fire, and when Isaac dodged, he threw another one only a few feet away. It hit and Isaac began to stagger. Marco dropkicked Issac on his way down and he landed on one knee. Marco ran in and punched, Isaac blocked with his forearm and tried to strike Marco with his dagger. Marco spun and kicked him in the back. Isaac was about to get up, but Marco ax kicked him back down.

"Why, why do I always have to start over," said Isaac. "Start over with what?" Marco asked. Isaac looked up with anger, "My revenge against the one who made me this way. My own mother!" "Wait, so the rumors were true?" "Yes, that royal guardswoman is my mother. She abandoned me! Said that a human couldn't do anything but hurt her. My dad, he was a human. My mom was on a Mewman expedition to Earth when she met him. They did some long distance dating, but that woman butchered it the next time she saw him! She tried to get him to come to Mewni not to live with her, but to work for her, all because humans are lesser. When he refused she left, heartbroken when she shouldn't have even felt bad. My dad was the one who felt bad. The love of his life disregarding him like trash. When I was born, my mother got a close friend of hers to help her through pregnancy. She made me an orphan and sold me. She went so far as to take time off duty just to get rid of me. The only reason I know this is because my foster parents would talk about it late at night. I ran away, I ran to the monsters. The only reason they took me in, was because I wasn't a full Mewman. And because my last name is one that I haven't even seen other faces that hold it," said Isaac. "Why not meet your dad?" Marco asked. "How am I supposed to do that? Dimensional scissors are pretty hard to get, especially if your boss will only give them to monsters," said Isaac. "I'll take you." Isaac looked up surprised, "Why? Why do that for someone you don't even know?" Marco pulled out his scissors, "Why help anyone? It's because they're in need. How I see it, you're a victim of a cruel crime. Come on, you don't wanna pass this up do you?" "Yeah, go with a man that I just tried to kill, and hides his face from me. Even if your offer holds true, how do you know that I won't try and kill you?" Marco took off his costume to reveal himself in a plain white T-shirt, as well as his normal voice, "I really don't, but you should trust me at least for a little bit." "I'll go, but when we get back, this fight will continue." "Sounds fine by me," said Marco as he put the costume back on.

They went through the portal. "So what's your last name exactly?" Marco said. "Adderance," said Isaac. They were at the gas station on the border of the pear. Marco pulled out his phone, "I'll probably need a state and a first name." "Wisconsin is his state and his name is Isaiah." "Wait, before I search, what's your name?" "Isaac," Isaac said reluctantly. After a while, the website had a list of 5 people. "Any of these look familiar?" Marco asked. "He probably is the one with police questioning. Back then the police would be investigating anything that had to do with Mewni." "All right, his zip code is 53002 and his ID was last used in a Red Lobster." "Hmm," said Isaac, thinking about what could be happening. Marco opened a portal to the restaurant. They went inside of the establishment and walked up to the front desk, "Wait, they'll never tell you about my father if you have that on," Isaac pointed to his costume. "Alright, you handle it," said Marco. "Stubborn." Marco was standing outside, pacing back and forth. "He lives nearby on Weis Street. "All right let's go," said Marco.

They stood in front of the house, it was white and had two stories. The roof was higher up on the left side of the house, with a large window underneath it. The right side was a little lower and housed the front door. They walked up the steps towards the door. Isaac hesitated and then pressed the doorbell. A few seconds passed, and the door opened. A man asked, "How can I help you twooo?" He eyed their weapons and tried to close the door. Isaac put his foot up to stop it and let himself in. "Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you," he said. "Yeah maybe not, but I know Mewmans when I see them, you're here to take me to court. You already know I won't win! Not against her, she's admired by half of your kingdom!" "You mean my mother, yeah she won't be a problem much longer. You're my dad, you probably don't know me because my mom never even talked to you after that day. I heard about it from my foster family," said Isaac. "Wait, she put you into foster care?" Isaiah said. Isaac nodded. An African woman came down the stairs directly in front of the door, "What's happening down here?" "Well, you know the ex that I told you about?" Isaiah said. The woman said, "Yeah, the one who ran off unexpectedly one day." "Well she had a son and this is him," Isaiah said with a hand on his head. "Oh, nice to meet you! I'm Hayley, what's your name?" "Isaac." She said, "Ah, just like your father's name. So who's your friend," at the word friend Marco and Isaac both crossed their hands and shook their heads, "or the person next to you?" "I'm uhhh, defense attorney for his trial against his mom. Just before you ask I wear this to," Marco stopped to think, "not get targeted by a gang whose case I turned down." "Oh, I hope you're okay. I thought you were just a teenager with a deep voice. You're pretty short for your age." Hayley said, concerned. "Yeah I get that a lot," said Marco. "You know for such a nice reunion, there should be cake to celebrate," said Hailey. "You don-," the trio began. "You all must be joking, I'm not going to let this not be celebrated," said Hayley. He ushered them all into the kitchen. "All right, you guys are gonna help too, grab that mixing bowl and put in this," she pulled out a piece of paper that she had been writing on. "I've never cooked before though," said Isaac. "Well it's a good time as any to start," said Hayley. They started mixing eggs and flour. It wasn't the hardest thing in the world, but Isaac definitely was having a hard time. He always wouldn't be able to mix steadily. It was either too fast or too slow. After a while, the batter was mixed right and ready to go into the oven. "So, why do you to have weapons." Umm, his neighborhood is pretty far and pretty bad," said Isaiah. "Oh, okay," said Hayley. Marco's phone began to ring, it was from Florence, "Sorry I have to take this." "Dude! There is a battle going on, why didn't you give the signal!" "I'm kinda busy right now," said Marco. "If your not fighting the guy, I'm guessing he's left, so get out here!" "I'm chasing him right now, where not in the room." "Ahh, just don't let him get away, we're halfway done with this compound, I gotta go." "That was an associate of mine, he was telling me about some extra things that go along with the case," Marco said. They basically waited, not knowing what to say as the cake cooked. The ringer dinged and Isaiah went to take out the cake. It consisted of velvet flavoring and was about to be covered with red velvet icing. "So how old are you?" Hayley said as she pulled out the candles. "16," Isaac said. Eww, bet you're excited to be driving!" Hayley and Isaiah lit 16 candles atop the cake. "Happy birthday to you," the two of them started and Marco joined in, "happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Isaac, happy birthday to you!" He eyed the cake, not knowing what he should do. "Blow out the candles and make a wish," said Isaiah. Isaac blew out the candle and Hayley started cutting pieces for everyone around the table. Isaiah said, "What did you wish for?" "That I would beat my mother in court," said Isaac.

Isaac and Marco left the house. "How would beating my mom in court affect her?" "Well first off, every crime that you've done could be put on her. And you'd have her backed up to a wall, facing prison," said Marco. "So how would I go about getting a case?" "I can help you with that, I'll just need the princess to order one in session," said Marco. "And that whole defense attorney thing?" Isaac asked. "That'll get pretty hard to pull off, but it's possible." "Why do this all for me?" Isaac wondered. "I told you, I want to help those in need. It's kinda like a duty that just grew on me." Marco opened the portal and walked through, Isaac followed. Marco walked through the front door of the facility, the last of the monsters being tied up around the control panel. Everyone turned, ready to fire at Isaac. "Wait, he deserves to be put on trial, not for committing the crimes but for a cruel backstory that was pretty wrong," Marco said. "Always the optimist, but if he hasn't attacked you yet, I guess I can trust em'," said Florence. "No, what are you 2 saying? He is a confirmed criminal, just lock him up for his crimes," said Star. "Well, what if I told you that the crimes could be put on someone else? Yep, that's right, the rumors are true. He's the son of that," Marco pointed towards his mother, "royal guardswoman." "What are you talking about? He's just stalling for time in order for his boss to pick him up," said Star. "Watch me then, I'm going to testify in court and if I don't win, I'll be your prisoner. Simple as that," said Isaac. "Uhhh," Star sighed, "fine. But you better have some good evidence, because this isn't going to be a fair trial. So don't say that you haven't been warned," said Star. Florence walked over to the two of them, "So how are we supposed to get this evidence?" "We have to go to where he was in foster care. Then we'll have official documents for his case. And before you worry, yes we do have a witness, but Isaac over here will give his story as well," said Marco. "Nice plan you guys got there. It just might work," said Florence.

"This is the closest foster care place to my foster home," said Isaac. They walked in, the place was pretty bland. It was dimly lit, with grey walls and a service desk. It ran along the room and stopped about a yard away from the right side. There were metal bars on the desk that ran up to the ceiling, with little spaces for exchange. Marco walked up to the service desk, there was a man sitting there looking at the trio. "Hey, could we have the records for someone named Isaac Adderance?" Marco asked. "Your that Failsafe guy, sure I can get them. It's the least I can do after all you've done for us," the man said. They stood around for a little bit, surprisingly his name had been pretty well hidden from their archives. The man finally came back with a folder of paper, "These were pretty hard to find. Apparently, the guy was a runaway, and his previous family didn't ever put a name down. Now, this is just me, but I think his parents bribed this company into making there be no correlation with him. Hopefully, it helps." "Thanks," said Marco. As they were leaving he looked through the files. At the bottom of one of them, it said, "Keep out of sight." "Wow, your mom even tied to cover you up when she was even parenting you," said Florence. "She tried to take as many precautions as she could in order to hide her shame. But she took one wrong turns. She had 5 months off duty. That's gotta be on her profile, or on at least one document," Isaac said. Florence put his hand out, "Infiltration, Infiltration," Marco put his hand in the middle and chanted with Florence. Soon, so did Isaac and they broke the circle.

Sorry this came out so late, I've had a busy week. There was a school project and my soccer practice. I tried to get this out on Wednesday but obviously couldn't. This is my longest chapter so far, so I hope it's good. Couldn't do anything for chapter 7 over the weekend, but I hope to get it out by at least Wensday.


	7. Chapter 7

"So where are we gonna find an official profile of your mom?" Florence asked. "Probably, where the knight trainees submit their applications," Isaac said. "And where is that?" Florence asked. "The royal archives," said Isaac. Florence complained, "Uhh, of course, it's one of the hardest things to do, and not just here but anywhere that your gonna go." "Well, let's think how we're supposed to get in first," said Marco. The castle was pretty secure, there were guards patrolling every square inch, and it had plenty of traps laid about. Marco said, "Just so you know, I got nothing," Florence turned and started to put his hands out, "BUT, we can come up with something when we're actually about to see it." Florence said, "I guess." "Yeah," said Isaac. They started off towards the castle, they had decided to go to the cliff that Marco and Florence first arrived on, in order to avoid suspension. They looked toward the castle. The only way in that they could see was a window, but it was too obvious. "Don't the training rooms have floorboards?" Florence asked. "Yeah, we could use those if we're able to get in," said Marco. "How about we cause a distraction and go through a knight's quarters. Most of them will be nearby the training rooms," said Isaac. "Sounds like a plan, but who's gonna be the distraction?" Florence asked, the others looked at him and then back at each other.

"Fireworks! Isn't that a bit much, like I'm gonna be launching fireworks straight at that little middle part of the castle! Now I don't know about you, but I'll be lucky if I'm not caught," said Florence. "Don't worry, the fireworks are separated and the fuses are pretty long. You'll be able to run towards an entrance and pretend like you're there to help," Marco said. "If I see you 2, I can't promise that things won't get a little out of hand," Florence said. "Yeah yeah, just go already, we only have till 4, then this dude has a princess convention to go to," said Isaac. "Ha, imagine him, dressed up as a princess, drinking tea and having brunch. What're you gonna do anyway? I didn't take you as the pervy type but once you pretend to be both female and a princess, it takes a turn for the worse," said Florence. "It's not like that! It more of going over problems that have been happening than a princess party. Besides, I'm gonna tell them that I'm a guy," Marco said. "Bet chu won't, you love all that free stuff. If they find out that your only pretending to be a princess, and possibly because they find out that your a guy, your finna lose everything," Isaac said. "I am fine with that thank you very much! I can go without it, I'm just going to need to say this in a way that won't make an issue for all of St. Olga's." "Yeah, having the main princess end up not even being royalty, or being the first guy princess there. No problem," said Florence. "Let's focus on the task at hand here. Us two are going to sneak into a knight's quarters, there are plenty of places to hide and it isn't suspicious, and then go out towards a training room and go under the floor. Lucky me to know of a secret spot in there. You can use it to get to a storage room for all of the knight's new training equipment. From there, we'll go towards the bottom floors. Now the only way down there is the stairs, conventionally, but we can use a staircase connected to the room of the royal family. Most likely they'll be discussing the case, and they're going to be elsewhere. We're going to take the stairs just before the throne room, so no guards should end up seeing us," said Marco. "Sounds like a plan," said Isaac. Florence looked down at the box of fireworks underneath him. He started to sift through it vigorously, "Can I use this one?" Florence pulled out a 2-foot long firework that was a full box of the regular ones. "I thought you said you would buy moderate fireworks," Marco said to Isaac. "Well you know, it's always great to get the best. Look at it this way, if this ends up blowing up part of the castle, at least we wouldn't get caught," said Isaac. Marco sighed, alright come on.

Marco and Isaac began to scale up the castle, they were on the side of it looking for a knight's quarter that was at least on the 4th or 5th floor. They found an empty room, there were dirty clothes everywhere, so they could hide their footsteps easily. They found themselves inside and waited. After a little bit, they heard a barrage of explosions to their right. "He used it right off the bat!" Marco said. "Shhh," said Isaac. Meanwhile, Florence was running and lighting separate fireworks that he had set up. "Woooo! The castle is going to have a few holes in it by the time this is done," he said. Marco and Isaac began to move, they looked down the hallway and saw 2 guards. They waited for them to search elsewhere and then moved. The training room was on the pair's left. The room they had left wasn't very wide but it was very long. The walls were a mix of blue and grey, and the room had a total of 10 beds lined up with dressers in front of each of them. The narrow hallway in between them allowed conversation and a breakfast. Or it would, yet dirty laundry line it up and down. They exited in a brown hallway with brown walls and flooring. Their right, where the guards were, contained a small slope, and the left was level. The training room wasn't very far, yet it was very big and had a few guards inside. "Alright, we just need to go to the console, it looks like one from a carnival ride, and we need to make all of the obstacles on the right side," Marco whispered. Isaac nodded and they went around to the open side of the room. There it was, with all of the obstacles, such as training dummies, arrow launchers, and traps. The console was white and was attached to the wall. It was separated from the left, middle and right. Marco randomly put hardships on the right side and headed towards the doorway. "Wait, won't they get suspicious?" Isaac asked. "Squires do this kind of stuff all the time when they pass by, so hopefully not." They headed inside and all the guards were focused on their targets. Marco went straight towards the floor grate and lifted it, Isaac started after them and looked towards the royal guards. He froze for a few seconds, and then shook his head and went inside. But it was too late, one of the guards noticed the grate close and alerted the others, "Hey, there's someone down there!" Marco and Isaac sped up and looked for the exit. Marco saw it and started towards it, but just then a spear came down to his left. They hurried along even faster and made it out of the room's border. However, the guards didn't stop there, they continued their chase and alerted even more people. "What was that back there?" Marco asked, annoyed. "I, I, I saw my mother. I guess she was training because of the stress," Isaac answered. Marco sighed, "Of all times." "So why are you still doing that other voice?" Isaac asked. "Well, just in case, I mean other people around here know me and everything." "Oh."

They had arrived at the storage room and hastily started towards the royal section of the castle before they were caught. They had been running into down a hallway when two guards appeared, they hid inside of a room and sat there quietly. The guards had heard them and slowly passed by, Marco and Isaac both held their breath. They opened the door across from them slowly, they searched it and continued. Marco and Isaac entered the royal dining room, where the family ate and went past it towards a room next to the throne room. Inside there was and elevators and a staircase. They went down and found a clearance desk. There was a goat-like creature sitting behind it, reading a book. Marco and Isaac started to sneak past, but the man-goat fell over the top of the desk. He was right behind them and they didn't have any options inside of the bright yellow room. He began to walk towards the entrance to his desk. He was about the turn the corner. Isaac lounged and got him into a chokehold. The man struggled, and tried to get to his radio, but Issac put his legs atop the goat man's arms and then slammed his head against the desk. He was out cold, Marco pointed with open palms in exasperation while Isaac continued. They had reach stairs, then more stairs, then more stairs, until finally they had reached the beginning of the archive room. It was very large, but at least it had been sorted. Marco went to the "a" section for application, and Isaac went to the "k" section for knight. This went on for a while, but the applications were ultimately in the "k" section. Isaac pulled out a folder, "Hey, I think this is it." Marco came over and looked over Isaac's shoulder. He opened it and it held the newest recruits' applications for the royal guard spot. "This is new, so I'm guessing to the left is old," said Isaac. He pulled out another file that was around 20 years before he was born. He sifted through it and pulled out a picture of his mom as a teen. She had braces and long hair, but you could tell that she was excited. "Hmm," Isaac said in disgust. They looked at the other information in the file and found her later years. Isaac went ahead 20 years and found a request for leave that his mom made. "Here it is. Anything else we need?" Isaac asked Marco. "No I don't think so, everything else to do with this case is unofficial. Let's head out, we can blend in with Florence's cover." Just as they left the archive room, there were guards coming down the main staircase. Marco and Isaac saw a pile of abandoned material and hid in it. The guards walked by and one of them said, "Man, whoever did this is going to pay. What did that Quicky guy say in his search?" "I don't think he really said anything, I don't think he would after finding ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. People care more for him than they do for us," said another guard. Isaac and Marco looked at each other and then back, they waited for the guards to enter the room so they could go. They started up the staircase and had gotten pretty far when they saw Florence. He was walking and talking to the two guards escorting him, "-He'll probably be here shortly." The two groups met and stopped. "See, that was pretty short. Heh, heh, um…," said Florence. "Yeah, what's going on?" Marco asked, trying to sound surprised. The guard responded with, "Are you authorized to be here?" "Um, yeah I'm helping out with the explosion thing. Actually," Marco put his hands behind his back and pulled on his dagger, then he asked the knight, "how close were you to the explosion?" "We're in the same division, so it was pretty close to our quarters." "Perfect," Marco thought. He walked past the guards and he signaled Florence. Then Marco threw the dagger at the guard who had been talking, and Florence launched an arrow at the other one. "We're gonna need to take the bodies outside, and then put them in their quarters. Once we do that, we can cover this up as part of the explosion."

They had exited the staircase and went out of a window, taking the bodies with them. Luckily, the search was still active and they hadn't done an outside investigation. The trio slipped in through the large hole in the side of the castle, leaving the bodies, and headed towards the entrance while Florence stayed behind. Marco and Isaac went inside the front entrance and saw an onslaught of guards. "Hey we're here to help, so can I see Star?" Marco asked. "The guards looked around and nodded, one of the ones up front pulled out a ratio and called up Star, "That Failsafe guy is here to see you. Yeah, ok, I'll send him up." The guards nodded towards the elevator behind her and Marco and Isaac stepped inside. "What floor?" Isaac said. "What do you think? 5, where the explosion happened." Isaac rolled his eyes and went up. "They probably don't like you since they are friends with your mom," said Marco. Isaac was silent, the door opened and Star was standing there, "Nice of you to come by. Although you're a little late." "Yeah probably, Quicky told us about it," said Marco. Florence was starting down the hallway to the group's left. "Still pushing for the case? Uhh, I really hope this goes ok," Star said. "Yeah," Marco said. "So how can we help here?" Florence asked. "Can't say that you can, everything is mostly finished around here," said Star. "Welp, I'm off to go find a fridge then. I really like how everything is corn around here," said Florence. "Of course, I'll be on my way. What about you?" Marco asked Isaac. "Same, probably go to my pa's house." "Thanks for stopping by," Star said. "Anytime, you know, if you want, we could help with the investigation," said Marco. "Oh no, we got that covered." Marco and Isaac went down the elevator and Isaac asked Marco, "So, what time is your princess party?" "It's not a princess party, and it is at 6. What time is it now?" "It's almost 5:30." "What!," Marco said as he made a dimensional rift, "I gotta hurry." Isaac waved him goodbye and then realized that he needed a rift to get back home. "Oh no," he facepalmed, "I got to go to a princess party, and I'm a dude!"

Marco got put his costume back on Earth, and then went to Mewni for his princess outfit. "You ready princess Marco?" Star asked as Marco went out into the main hall. "Yeah, yeah I'm ready," he said. "Let's go, it's almost time!" Marco open a portal to where Ponyhead was and then to St. Olga's. "Wow Earth Turd, sticking to the princess getup. You know one day it'll backfire on you," Ponyhead said. "Probably sooner than later," Marco said nervously. Meanwhile, Isaac sat on the edge of a balcony that led into St. Olga's. It was on the right side of the front gate, and it led into a dining hall. He was in this position trying to spot Marco as he walked inside of the front gate. He saw what looked like Marco heading inside, yet he had his suspicions. "No way, that can't be him. Why go for something so humiliating?" Isaac wondered. He went onto the field and followed Marco's small group. He was going to stand out with his get up though. He got as close to Marco's group as possible, if he really was a big deal, then they probably wouldn't notice him. They had reached the front gate and there was a princess checking people in. "Princess Turdina! My it's been a while. I want to show you all of the improvements that we've made," she said. "Um, sure ok," Marco said. "Man does he sound weird in his normal voice," Isaac thought. He tried to tag along, but there was an audience surround them. "Hey, who are you mister?" One of the princesses asked. Marco's group turned around and Star asked, "Wait, your that guy on trial. What are you doing here?" "Um, getting evidence, yeah I uh heard my mom has been here a few times, so I'm getting evidence," Isaac said nervously. "I think we should let him in, he has a good cause right," Marco suggested. The princesses turned to him and back to Isaac. A blond haired princess with 6 arms stepped forward and said, "Alright but just this once." Isaac mouthed the words thank you towards Marco and he rolled his eyes. He walked along with them and gradually sped up. "Hey," he whispered to Marco. They were walking down a hallway that was basically a museum for Marco. There were pictures of him as a princess and his belongings were on display. "Why do the worship you here?" "They do not worship me, they just like me," Marco said. Isaac pointed to girl who was caressing the crown that he had supposedly once worn. "Ok maybe there's a little more to it but it's nothing to serious." "So when are you gonna break it to em?" Isaac asked Marco. "Soon, ok?" The group reached a room reserved for brunch, "Wait," Isaac thought as he looked at the schedule, "this only has brunch and dance on it. I thought this was a school, and why isn't there time for sleeping on this thing?" The dance/disco portion of the day was about to start, Isaac saw that it was in the backyard of the building through a window. There was a DJ setting things up and making adjustments. "Great castle you got here princess," Isaac said sarcastically. "Who said it was mine," Marco said defensively. "Everyone." "Alright stop you two, your both bad at your jobs," Ponyhead said. "What is that supposed to mean?" Isaac asked. "Evidence, remember?" Isaac shrugged and went out to the party area. "Why is he here?" Marco thought, annoyed. He thought back to the elevator, "Was he scared to go to his dad's house? He could've just made a portal at the front door an-," Marco's hand went to his pocket. He was wearing his pants underneath the dress so it wouldn't be too weird. "I didn't make him a portal. Oh this is my fault." "Something wrong? Wait, are you planning on being in the court case?" Star asked. "Oh no, heh, no way, I just am kind of," Marco tried to think, "chummy with that royal guard." "Oh ok." Ponyhead was sitting (or rather floating) at a circular white table having an all you can eat treat. "What are you gonna do for the speech?" Star asked. "The speech? What speech?" Star sighed, "Well knowing you, you'll come up with something on the fly." "What is it?" "You'll see," Star said, smirking. Marco looked out the window, Isaac was against the metal fence to the left of the DJ, eating what looked like a breakfast bowl. "Let's head down there before this speech, that I'm hearing so much about, starts." Almost the entirety of St. Olga's was out there. Marco walked over to Isaac, "I forgot the "beam me up Scotty" part didn't I." "What?" "It's an Earth joke, but I forgot that you needed to get home." "Why else would I be here?" Isaac asked. "Alright, after the speech I'll send you home." "Why not now?" "To many people," said Marco.

After a while Marco was pulled behind a stage and Isaac stood in front of the entrance, his back leaned against the wall. The princess with 6 arms came over and said, "You know, I bet that she has a crush on you. I mean she did say to let you stand there." "Yeah I wouldn't be so sure about that," Isaac said. The princess just smiled. Isaac didn't really pay attention, but the whole speech was about how great and how much better St. Olga's could be. Isaac was mainly waiting for Marco to tell his big secret, but he showed no signs of doing it. "Knew he wouldn't," Isaac thought. All the sudden a rift opened next to Marco and three figures came out. A woman walked along the stage towards Marco, unbeknownst to Isaac, it was Heinous. Isaac pulled out his pistols and was took aim, the princess said, "Woh, not to fast, let's hear her out first." Isaac remained in position, ready to fire. Isaac put his guns down once he realized that she was going to force Marco into doing what was best for him. He revealed himself as a guy to those who followed him. "Finally," said Isaac. "Wait you knew!" Isaac just smiled. The princess, as well as all the other princesses were shocked. Except, they did something that Isaac didn't expect, they stuck with Marco, and accepted him. Heinous was frustrated, she tried to strike Marco with some sort of monster arm, but Isaac shot her hand and she dropped it. She looked in his direction and he smirked, she scowled, picked up the arm, and went back through the portal. Marco was once again Marco and walked off the stage. "Your an addict," Isaac said. "Not anymore," Marco said. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." "Finally," Ponyhead said came into the room. Marco sighed and started to walk off, just as he turned the corner he made a portal to Earth and pointed to it. "Hard to think that I'm going to court tomorrow," Isaac thought. Isaac was about to ring the doorbell when a dog type monster walked over to the bottom of the stairs. The monster asked, "Are you betraying us?" "I'm going to get what I was promised." "You need to come back or you're going to be replaced." "I'll come back when I feel like it. I joined to get back at my mother, and that's what I'm going to do. Whoever said that I would stick around afterward anyways. I have things that I want to do too ya know." "Yeah but it doesn't have to be know. Why take a shortcut, your not gonna get what you were originally after." "I don't want her dead anymore, so I'm fine with my decision." "If you don't come back soon th-." "Come back to what, a "family". If those people are what you call my family then I'd be just like you all. I was gonna leave soon anyway, I know when I'm being used." "So you choose replacement? Alright, she's already 10 times better at following orders." "See you don't even need me." "You'll regret this." "Not if I win the case," Isaac said smirking. The monster pulled out a phone and texted someone, a few minutes later he stepped through a portal behind him. Isaac rung the doorbell.

Marco decided that a black tux over his costume would be at least semi-fitting. The courtroom was right next by the kingdom and had the same style. Marco got there and then picked up both Florence and Isaac. Florence had a blue button-up shirt and jeans. Isaac had a brown leather jacket and was wearing full camo. "Well don't we look stylish," Florence said. "All of us except Isaac, that is," Marco said. Florence laughed and said, "Camo? Even now your gonna wear camo." "Why not?" Isaac asked. "So is your dad going to be a witness?" Marco asked Isaac. "Yeah, he's getting ready. He said to pick him up in 10 minutes." They walked through the front door to see the entirety of the royal guard sitting in the seats. The seats were wooden and connected throughout the room. They went in a circle around the center of the court, where Isaac's mom was seated with a lawyer. She had brown hair and brown eyes that must've been given to Isaac. In the circle of the seat there were separators for people to enter and exit. Marco walked along one to the center. There were 2 chairs so Florence had to stand. Marco held a folder in his hand and put it on the desk in front of the chairs. He walked over to a witness chair and opened a portal. He stuck his head through and then went out, Isaiah stepped through. Isaac's mom's eyes widened and then she retained he composer. Marco walked back and sat in the chair. "I am judge Olman, and I call this court into order. I'll have the defendant go first." "Wait, you pulled her whole file out," Marco whispered to Isaac. "I had the time and besides, we needed the insurance." "If they find that this is missing and that we're using it, they'll put 2 and 2 together and get us caught. But, then again no-one can check that entire thing at this point." Isaac nodded. The lawyer looked around at what he had and asked, "Well for starters, how does a royal guard get outside of Mewni?" Marco's trio looked at the folder's insides and saw that Isaac's mom was on a mission finding an escaped prisoner. Apparently, the guy had something special going on with him and did something that was "against the kingdom". "Even if this woman did, she was doing her job. If she didn't, who knows what kind of problems we'd have. How would she do her job, and run off with a human, AND have a child," the lawyer continued. The judge looked towards the prosecution side and Florence instantly got up and started saying, "Well, the job was to search around for an escaped prisoner. So naturally she would be asking around, right? She came across that man," Florence pointed at Isaiah, "and he told her where the prisoner was. Then he was like, "Hey it might take a while," and he invited her over for dinner. They talk and she decided that she would see him again sometime. Sometime later she came back and was like, "Come with me," then Isaiah said, "No I have stuff to do here." She got angry and before leaving she said, "I have stuff to do too." She found out she was pregnant but never went back. She then took time off of work and had her child." Marco and Isaac blinked rapidly as if they weren't seeing right. "Your evidence?" Olman said. Marco started speaking, "For starters we have a request for leave that she wrote herself." The judge motioned for Marco to bring it forward. He looked through it and confirmed what Marco had said, "Continue." "Then, she never went on to another mission until they caught the guy. And she never switched out with anyone, even when suggested to. So something happened to have her stay. I say we bring out the witness."

The judge nodded and Isaiah stepped forward. "The defendant side will go first," the judge said. The lawyer stood up and asked Isaiah, "So your the father of this child right?" "Yes." "Are you officially marry to someone other than this woman?" "Yes." "How did you gain the interest of a royal guardswoman exactly?" "Well like he said, she stayed over for the night and then she said that she would come back." "So all this happened because you told her where the prisoner was?" "Well she was demanding food at a stand since she didn't have any. I bought her some and we talked. She said that she couldn't go home until she caught the guy or searched for 2 days. I told her that if she wanted to stop by later she could." "She could, she could come by the house of a human instead of being the independent woman we know her as?" "Earth doesn't work like that." "Sure maybe, but Mewni doesn't work like that either." "This questioning isn't leading anywhere, it's time for the prosecuting side," said the judge. The lawyer sat down and Marco started talking, "So her coming over your house would explain the lack of unidentified illegal action in the police reports." Isaiah looked at him questioningly, "Polic-?" Isaac winked at him, "Yeah they would've found her on private property because they work, uh 24 hour shifts, yeah. They patrol ALL around the country," Isaiah looked at Isaac and then at the judge nervously. Marco moved on and said, "So if these go together, when was the day when she came back?" "I'd sayyy, August 28th probably," Marco took out a file and went towards the judge. "Now I don't know about you, but I think that says August 28th," said Marco. The judge nodded and Marco said, "Now that was her reinstatement AFTER she made a request for it. So she probably wanted to keep a promise, say one to come back for example." "Prosecution, anything you have to say?" Olman asked. "That doesn't prove that he is her son," the lawyer said. "The guardswoman was seen with random symptoms that were never connected to anything. Drowsiness, a strangely larger appetite, and a hard time with balance. It can be put into the air that she left her child with a foster family and got rid of any evidence. He doesn't have an ID and he isn't listed as a Mewman citizen in the Mewni archives." "Appt, I think that she would very well know whether or no-," the prosecutor started. "That is quite enough, I think I've reach a con-," the judge was about to finish when some of the other royal guards started to holler. Star came down and whispered in his ear. The judge looked back at the 2 sides and said, "The princess has asked me to postpone this until tomorrow. Just be warned that it is only my decision, so don't expect to much. Marco, Florence, and Isaac got up and went to the main hall in front of the court. Star came out with two guards behind her and said, "Your gonna need to give up the case. I'll give you a day, but the other guards are going to freak out if she turns out to be guilty. My mom wants to list it as a crime against the castle, but I just thought that we'd be able to talk it over. Right?" Marco smiled behind the mask and said, "I'm afraid that I might not be able to do that," and then he walked off. Star sighed and facepalmed, "Please, I don't want something to happen to you." "I'll be fine," Marco said as he walked off. "Nice of you not to give it up," Isaac said. "That would be the exact opposite of the right thing to do. Anyway, I need to get home before my mom freaks out," Florence said. "Yeah court cases take too long. Don't forget about bringing my dad back too," Isaac said. "Alright," Marco opened 2 portals and waved them off. Isaac arrived outside of his dad's house and started towards the steps. Something was off, he looked through the window and saw Hayley reading a magazine, but in the reflection he saw someone getting into position atop a building's frame. It was a building that was being newly constructed and the figure was climbing up the side. Isaac squinted and saw a sniper rifle on their back. He quickly got wooden boards, that had been strewn about, to cover up the windows. He broke into a run in the direction of the building.

Sorry that it took me so long, I've been busy at school, but I'll try and get chapter 8 in soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Isaac ran for his life, the construction site was a little under a mile away, and the figure was about 25 percent up the building's frame. Isaac ran along the street at first, but at the curb he went straight through the forest. There was only one thing that could get him there fast enough, and that was a car. Isaac came out of the forest and into another part of the neighborhood. He searched for a car that was being driven, if he was to drive it himself. He looked left and right along the street frantically, and then he listened. There was a car coming up to his left, Isaac waited. Just as it was about to pass by, Isaac jumped. He landed on top of the hood of the car and kicked the windshield in. "Sorry about this," Isaac said as he curled himself into a ball, pressed the unlock button on the passenger side and kicked the driver out. He came running after the speeding car, Isaac looked out the broken windshield and realized that he was going down a hill. There was a crossroads at the bottom and Isaac hit the brakes and turned to the left, in the direction of the construction site. He speed, going 80mph and he would've crashed if the streets had been busy. Although, there were still plenty of people who got off at 7. Isaac swerved the car in all directions until he was on the road that the workers took to get in. The office building that they were making had red beams lining the exterior, and the base of the walls put up, they were white with a red company logo, "Rogo's housing." There were no workers at the site, but there was a security guard, granted he wasn't that diligent, but a security guard nonetheless. The figure was now almost to the top, and when Isaac noticed, he went crazy. Isaac jumped on a truck nearby the red beam that the figure had gone up and started to claw his way up, never once stopping. Occasionally he would make leaps to further himself, not even caring about the hazard. He was about halfway up when the figure climbed on the flat roof, their rifle shining.

At this point, Isaac was almost running up the side of the soon to be office. Once Isaac reached the top, he almost went up but stopped himself. "They obviously heard me, if they didn't they would need to be deaf," Isaac thought to himself. "Welp, what do I do now? They won't shoot if I never end up going up there, but if I wait to long they'll end up baiting me." Isaac started to shimmy along the side of the beam to his right, it was in the cross shape, ensuring that he wouldn't be found. His best bet was to just get to the middle of the right side of the roof. From there, Isaac would be able to open fire and have an advantage. Isaac went along with the plan, and listened as it played out, the figure was circling looking for where he would come out. Isaac waited, and when the figure started moving he leap upwards. Isaac opened fire and hit the figure twice with his first barrage. Isaac got a closer look and saw that the figure was a Hispanic girl with a symmetrical face and straight, black hair. She took the chance to get in close and start attacking, she had a staff on her person. She was probably a year younger than Isaac, yet she had him dodging until he got close to the edge of the rooftop. Isaac pulled out his daggers and kicked the staff's middle. The attacker skidded backwards and he swung from atop. She blocked and then Isaac kicked her in the stomach and she took a few steps back. Isaac tried to get another hit in, but the attacker hit him across his jaw and Isaac quickly cartwheeled back. They eyed each other and started in the other's direction. The figure tried to get at Isaac torso, but he ducked and tried to kick his foe. She backed up and started jabbing at Isaac. Isaac dodged and caught the staff, he pulled and went for the figures leg. He grabbed it and slid, then he kicked the other one. The figure fell and Isaac grabbed her neck and slammed her into the ground. Then Isaac through her upwards and started punching. He got a right hook and a left hook in, but the figure push him back.

She wiped her mouth, visibly angry, but she soon smiled and said, "You know, I'm supposed to be your replacement. But I wonder, why do you need to be replaced? Can't you handle another body?" she laughed, "He said that would you." Isaac clenched his fist and ran towards the foe. He tried to swing with all of his strength, but the figure uppercutted him. Isaac got even angrier and let out his pent-up frustration, "Ahhh!" He ran towards the figure and he shot one of his bullets from the gun on his belt. The figure dodged and Isaac went for a swing but she went back and Isaac kicked. She used her staff to block his latest entourage of blows. Isaac punched and punched and kicked and kicked until the figure had to turn, then he got on the inside of her staff and pushed it to the side. Then Isaac landed blow after blow, never letting up. He hit her across the jaw, uppercutted her, hooked her. Isaac banged her head on his knee and then hit her stomach, she tried to jump up and hit his head, but he blocked, ran in and got behind her. Still holding her leg, Isaac pulled and reached for her head. When his hand connected he put her straight into the ground. He got up, they were right by the edge of the building now and Isaac looked down. "I won't be another one of your victims. The boss said that you loved and cherished torture. Besides, being beaten here makes it so I have nowhere to go. Either way, I'll die. My name was Fiona by the way," she said. "What did the boss tell you? And what do you mean by was?" Isaac's eyes went wide. "No, no no," Isaac said. She started rolling off the side of the structure and Isaac tried to catch her but she curled into and kicked him in the jaw, making him fall back, and making her fall to her death.

"Come with me boy," the boss said to Isaac. They were standing at the monster temple and had just finished a mission. "Now both of us know that one got away, correct? So how is it that everyone who you took down were unconscious? Did you let him get away?" "Well I," Isaac began. The boss flipped on a light, and in the same exact room behind the same exact pane of glass. "You see, I need to teach you something, it's just another body," the boss said. "What is that supposed to mean?" "Well if you can play a part in killing a person, how different is it from killing them? If the problem lies in it being too physical, then isn't someone dying already physical?" "Sure bu-," Isaac began and the boss pressed a button. Isaac looked towards the chamber and noticed that there was a person strapped in a chair. They had been struggling, trying to get out, at least until the arrow went through their head. Blood dripped down and started pooling at the floor, the boss said, "See it's just another body." Isaac looked down, Fiona had met the ground with a similar pool. Isaac sighed and sat down, he looked towards the house and saw Isaiah walking in. Isaac was definitely walking home that night.

Meanwhile, Florence and Marco had been up texting, "Hey, how exactly are we going to get rid of those charges?" Florence asked. "I don't know, but look on the bright side, I might have to use my real face for this." "At this point it's a meh, Isaac already knows and you're probably not that interesting anyway." "Hey I have some things to be proud of." "Like what?" "Like my dream job." "And what would that be?" "A ninja." "Of course, well at least this case is in the bag. If they try to arrest us, all we have to do is go to Earth, they don't know who we are anyway." "I guess you're right about that Florence." "Damn right I am, man legal stuff is stressful. Anyway imma gonna finna eata soma dinna." "All right see ya," said Marco. He was making a plan for himself, who better to ask about legal matters than a queen. Marco knew where queen Ecispa was being kept for the time being, and he needed to ask her how arrest could be avoided. Marco had been sitting on his bed, same for Florence, when he put down his phone and started down the hallway. He walked through the opening to the throne room and saw groups of knights scattered about. "I guess everyone here is getting pretty angsty," Marco thought. He walked down another hallway that was, not surprisingly, close to the royal family. Eclipsia was in a garden area, chained to a bench. "Um, hello," Marco said as he walked in. "Why hello there, I haven't seen you before," Eclipsia said. "Well I came to ask you something, since you were a queen and all." "Oh I didn't pay enough attention for me to be of any use." "Well, what do you think I should do? There is this person who went to court prosecuting a royal guard, and he should've won the case but the royal family stopped the judge before he could announce his decision. I think that if he doesn't give it up, then they might try and arrest him, or maybe put him on probation," said Marco. "So you want me to give advice on this, yes?" Eclipsia said. Marco nodded. "Ok well, I think honestly there isn't much that he can do. I mean there's one option but it's pretty risky, I mean like BIG changes risky," Eclipsia chuckled. "Now I'm interested," said Marco. Eclipsia laughed and said with a ominous tone, "Alright then. You could get the kingdom on his side. But before you do, it could mean a lot of problems, not just for the royal family. At best, the citizens will all get in on the guy's side and he'll win, making the reputation of Mewni's royalty go," Eclipsia turned her head sideways and pointed her thumb down, "Plat." "Oh, are you sure there isn't anything else?" Marco asked. "Well when I was alive the royal family had all the power in the kingdom. So that was the only option, but it could be a little different now. I wouldn't know though, I've been pretty much dead for 300 years after all." "Really? Wow what's that all about?" "Well some very mean people said," Eclipsia's voice got deeper, "oh you are not fit to rule, oh you betrayed us," at this point back to normal, "And all I really did was run of with a monster." "Oh, that must've sucked. I always thought that Mewni wasn't the best place to live," said Marco. "Yeah I guess so, but it's not too late to change it," Eclipsia stood up and undid her cuffs. "Wait you could've done that this entire time?!" Marco said surprised. Eclipsia pulled him up and said, "I say that you should start those changes mister future king of Mewni." "Wait what!" Marco exclaimed as Eclipsia shoved him out of the garden. Marco looked back once and then started down the hallway. "I might be a little in over my head," thought Marco.

"You know, we should really make a name for this little friendship group," Florence said. They were walking towards the courtroom, Isaiah was at home. It was mainly because Isaac insisted that he would, if he came to Mewni there could be some people (or rather monsters) out for him. But the official reason was that he was no longer needed. They had been looking around for the princess, she was running pretty late. The final decision was suppose to start at 4, but she had been holding them up. "I'll regret any name that you two will end up with," said Isaac. "How about you make it then," Florence responded. "If I could make one, the best that it would be is I.M.F." Florence turned towards Marco, "Well how about it?" "Let's hold off on this, we're kind off backed into a corner here," Marco said. "You got that right," Isaac said. He then thought to himself, "More than you know." The narrow street had two benches on both sides, Isaac walked over to one and as he did, he was spoken to. "Well hello there," Star said. Isaac turned and Marco and Florence started to walk over, Star turned toward them. "Sorry about you having to drop this case, but it's not like he is going to be charged with anything." Florence smirked, "We're not dropping the case because no matter what you say, we like the idea of payback." "Come on you shouldn't be rash here, do you know what could come out of this?" Star said and then continued, "They could, at best, start monitoring you, or put you on house arrest. Or put you under arrest, or even expose who you really are." "Who's they, your the princess aren't you," said Marco, skeptical. "That doesn't mean that I can just do what I want. There's the magic high commission, the guards, too much for me to handle right now." "How about we just show that royalty doesn't always get to take whatever they want," said Isaac. "I heard about queen Eclipsia, don't ask how, but I did," said Marco. "Heard what?" Star asked, "Listen, just drop it please." Eclipsia's word played in his head, minus the king part, and Marco found himself caring about the true meaning of those words. "The answer is no," he said. "Well don't say that I didn't warn you," said Star. "This isn't something that we need right now, just this morning we had a girl's body brought in. It was just laying outside of the castle sitting there. I don't want something bad to happen to you," said Star. "Then don't let it princess," said Isaac, his mind brought back to the previous night. Star sighed and walked off towards the court with her face in her palm. "Welp let's hear what that old man has to say," Florence said. "Yeah," Marco murmured.

They came out of the courtroom glad, the final verdict had been that Isaac's mom was guilty. "Wow that was much too official for just a 5 minute chat," Florence said. "We basically walked in and then walked out," said Isaac. A royal guard approached them and said, "Hey you, or rather all of yall punks. We're going to need your fingerprints." "Isn't this not the place to do this?" Marco asked. "Now listen here smart aleck, unless you want this to go on charges against you, you'll comply. Am I clear?" Florence put out his hand, "Just so you know, I'm doing this because the princess has to much to deal with as it is." "So how are you gonna frame us with these?" Marco questioned. The guard smirked and said, exaggerated, "Oh we would never do something like that." The group eyed him as he walked off and turned towards each other, "Meh, it's not like they know who we really are, well except for Isaac. But with two people watching his back he shouldn't be in too much trouble," Florence said patting Isaac on the back. "Most of the royal part of the kingdom is against us right about now. They probably aren't use to not getting what they want," said Marco. His phone began to ring and Florence and Isaac looked at each other. Then they burst out laughing, "What is up with that ringtone?" Isaac said. "See, I told you that you weren't as interesting without that mask of yours," said Florence. Marco rolled his eyes and looked down, it was from Star. Marco picked up and Star said, "I think we might have a problem, the guards are doing all sorts of things to make Isaac guilty. I think that they might try to charge him with murder." "Why, can't you do something?" Marco asked in his normal voice. This made Florence snicker, and Marco turned to give him a look. "Well, I, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. These people helped me grow up, and it would be wrong for me to trust them less than a stranger who I barely know," said Star. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do either right now. But I think that they're just not used to being challenged like this, you know?" "Trust me, they're not in the wrong. Their fine; if they weren't then how has Mewni been so good all this time." "I guess you're right about that, alright I'll trust you," Marco said as he hung up. "Welp, guess we're going to need some insurance, right?" Florence said. "Soooo, I think we should find a hideout! Like a bat cave or someplace where we can go over things without people breathing down our backs." "Can't we just do that anywhere?" Marco asked. "Well what are we supposed to do now?" Florence responded. "I guess you're right." "Make it a place that nobody could ever find us at," Isaac said. "Now that's maybe a bit much there," said Florence, "but I like where your going." "Ok then, but we don't have money for a place like that," said Marco. "We don't need any, there are plenty of places to fix up in the ruins, the places people normal people won't go because it was were many monster clans use to live. The houses are pretty normal, one story homes that normally have 5 rooms. I don't know if there in the best condition, so it'll take a while to fix it up," said Isaac. "Wow you sure know a lot," Marco said. "Yeah, I'm down I may not look it, but cleaning isn't something that I take lightly," said Florence. "So where is it?" Marco asked. "Where that old lizard clan was," said Isaac. Marco thought back to Toffee and said, "Woah isn't that a little, you know, dangerous?" "Even if there were survivors still staying on Mewni, they won't go to such an obvious place. Besides, I've always wondered about them. I also wonder if you know why they did patrols out there after that Ludo guy took over the castle." "Wait what happened to the castle?" Florence asked, surprised. "Well that Ludo person was being possessed by a lizard monster a little while after his castle went down," said Marco. "Was it Toffee?" Isaac asked. "Yeah, wait how did you know that?" Marco questioned. "The guy I used to work for knew em." "What, used to? Guess we don't have to worry about that issue anymore, aye F safe?" Florence said. "Heh heh, um forget about that please," Marco said to Isaac. He continued, "Anyway that the jist of it, let's start looking for a place.

They went over to the southwestern side of the Mewman kingdom. Not surprisingly, the homeless and the poor took up most of the area. Afterall, it wasn't hard to find a decent home there since most people were afraid to death of the lizards. The entire town had a dark setting and it was run down to the point where even the soil was contaminated. There were two solid homes in sight, both made out of hastily made sandstone. "Right is always right," Florence said as he pointed to the home towards their right. The group walked over to the window and looked inside, it was overrun with mildew and crud. The only lighting that seemed eligible for use was a lantern sitting atop a countertop. The countertop was in the far right corner of the room that they looked into, connected to five other separate ones that looped in a circle with a gate to make up the missing sixth countertop. It took up a fourth of the one-room building and the gate opened towards a living area directly in front of the window. It had a library, a desk against the wall and a rocking chair sitting next by a radio. On the right side there were three separate rooms with closed doors, taking up the other half of the area. Down the side of them, on the other side of the building, there was a simple bathroom (at least it was a room) with a bathtub (although it was more of a large bowl since it didn't have a faucet), a toilet, and (thankfully) a door separating the small space from the hallway. Isaac walked inside and said, "The kitchen probably needs two people, and one of them will need to help out with the bedrooms. We won't really need to worry about the study, that is if we even end up using this place." "Huh, you really know your stuff, we'll I volunteer to do the kitchen," said Florence. "Wait aren't you guess getting ahead of yourselves?" Marco worried. "Meh, there isn't any better way to pass the time really, seen as we gotta keep up with those guards," said Isaac as he walked towards the bedrooms. Marco sighed and went towards the kitchen. Most of the cleaning supplies were just as dirty as the home so the others ended up talking Marco into not only opening portals to Home Depots on Earth, but they also got him to by the cleaning supplies.

After about an hour, they had only had a few of the countertops done all the way, with the contents inside them, and Florence used his lighter to light the lamp. The group basically threw anything that wasn't attached to the ground away, except for the items inside of the library. The bedrooms became easier to clean like this, and thankfully the floor was wooden. Although it was a simple floorboard that had point that exposed the dirt underneath them. The group agreed that they would need to get a carpet for it, and they also agreed that none of them would go near the bathroom. It was getting late and was starting to get so dark that the group couldn't even work anymore. "Let's head out and get some dinner, how's about it?" Florence asked. "Do you mind paying?" Marco implied. "Appt, okay how about this, I pay half. And Isaac, wait does he have money on him?" "You know I was getting paid by that guy. Would've had a little more if I killed the both of yous," said Isaac. "That was a joke right?" Florence said nervously. Isaac shrugged. "You better pay half," said Marco.

The group ended up at the burrito place that Marco stopped by from time to time. "Hey F safe, are you by chance Hispanic," said Florence. "What, just because I like burritos doesn't mean that I'm-," Marco began. "He is," said Isaac. "Haha, I'm one step closer to who you could be," Florence said. Marco looked at the menu, and realized that there was always only one burrito on their menu. "No way," Marco mumbled under his breath. "Wow, I have so many options here, let's see, burrito supreme and," Florence gasped, "get this, burrito supreme." Isaac rolled his eyes, and not surprisingly ordered the burrito supreme. They all ended up paying separate for the meal. They sat in a booth, and Isaac noticed that the clerk started eyeing them strangely, and them walked back towards the kitchen. "What exactly have you been doing outside of work Failsafe?" Isaac asked. "Well I texted Florence this, but I was going to hang out with a group of friends at this beach, but the trail kind of got in the way of that. Since school's out, I don't really know what to spend my time doing now that I'm here," Marco responded. "Yeah you do, you have spent your off hours as this person right here. Do some more bounties, or was that just a one time thing?" "No, but tonight I'm helping a friend of mine with this sleeping problem she has," Marco said. Isaac and Florence both spit out their shared favorite root beer and looked at Marco. "Wow, you have really gotten lured in good their. Are you pretty close friends, because if you're not then it's going to get WAY awkward," said Florence. "No it isn't like that, it's a special case," Marco began. "Yeah I'm just messing with you, it's the princess right?" Florence asked. "Yeah." "Wait, how do you know the princess?" Isaac asked. "Well she came to Earth as a foreign exchange student and my family took her in." This caused a relapse of the root beer's cruel fate. "I ship it," said Florence, Isaac nodded in agreement. "Woah, come on guys, it's not like that," said Marco. "Maybe not now but hey, it could be. Just letting you know," Florence said.

Marco sighed and heard the the store's door open. He looked, only to see a guard speed walking towards their table. The group looked up towards the guard, Florence waved and the guard said, "We want to discuss your murder charges young man," the guard pointed at Isaac. "I've never killed anyone, I might of worked with monster, but I never took part in any killings." "Yeah what exactly are you going on?" Florence asked. "Listen, the body that came in this morning had his fingerprints on it and we want to cut you guys a deal, unless you want charges," the guard said smiling. "Are you framing us?" Marco said, surprised. "You know, we tried that, but he actually had DNA on the body, so it got a lot easier," the guard said. "Wait, what was her name?" Isaac asked. "So you know something, it was Fiona." Isaac eyes got wider and he said, "She tried to kill me last night, but I never kill her. She died from… herself. But I have a question for you, how did you get the body from Earth. Did you send her?" "What are you talking about? I thought you knew that she was found outside of the castle. Now if she just appeared there, I won't complain. It gives us an edge after all. Now if you don't want this story out, we suggest that you stop getting involved with our political matters. But go ahead and get arrested, that works too." "Why are you so cocky, we might just put up a fight you know," said Florence. "Now we don't want trouble, and you don't want that either-," the cocky guard began. "Now what if we do? If we're getting a consequence while you get nothing, then we aren't fine. I want this to be clear, we're not going to stop getting involved now that we have a score to settle," Florence said. "Alright, don't get too upset if your just gonna get thrown out," said the guard, and he walked off. "Jeez, one of these days their going to be thanking me for saying that." Marco said, "There's quite a bit that they can do, I think that we should lay low, like go to Earth or something. That's our best bet to not start trouble, they're not gonna release your mother, but they aren't going to send her to a jail either. I think that she's in a holding facility for prisoners. But I can't guarantee that it's not a fancy one. As long as we have the people of the kingdom on our side, we can have an edge." "Alright then, after all the ringmaster of those machine things is still doing things near Echo Creek," said Florence. "Let's not forget about that house we found," Isaac said. "Yeah, how much could go wrong here if we take a little break," said Marco. "Now those are the words of someone who had MANY things go wrong because we took a simple, simple break," said Florence.

"Now Ms. Waters, you're probably sitting there asking yourself, "who is this person," or "why me," or "what does he want" and I'll get to that soon enough." They were sitting in a large apartment, with wide, high windows that only stopped in the living room. The living room was separated from the rest of the space by an archway and it was more of a study than an actual living room. There was a balcony leading out of the room, and on the inside, its decor consisted of a table, bookcases, and a coffee machine. Outside of the study, to the left, there was a large office area connected to the wall. Along the wall, there were T.V. monitors and in the middle, there was a computer that was beside a horizontal filing cabinet. To the left of this station was the kitchen, which was to the right of the door. Behind the station was Ms. Waters, confined to a chair eyeing the ringmaster. "I heard about your ex-husband and why he was being chased down by the Mewmans. Oh wait, I never told you how I know this did I. Surprisingly enough, I got this from your current husband. Although I did threaten to kill you, take that baby out of your stomach, and bring its head to his door, to be honest. You know I never knew what gender it was," he paused, "anyway, I now know of not only that man's impressive magic but the two of you guy's daughter's as well. Now I going to give it to you straight, I lied to your husband. I am going to kill both you and your baby, but at least it won't be brutal. I'll get to achieve my dream because of your family, you see since you're his ex-wife, you have some of his wondrous magic as well. With that, I can go to Mewni, get some more of your family's magic and then go on to channeling it. You see if I'm able to channel the magic, then I'll be able to amplify it as well. Then I'll be able to turn myself into the perfect being, one that is recessive in the entire population of Mewni, keeping them in check. First, it'll be them, then Earth, then other dimensions and finally the other realities. I'll become the true enforcer of the world, and to think that it all starts with you. So with that in mind, let's get started.

So I finally got out of school this week, so I'm feeling pretty good now. I tried to get this out sooner, but my family does way too much to celebrate the end of the school year so I've been a little held up. Chapter 9 might take a little bit because of this, they're pretty spread out across the country, so I'll probably need to travel. But I can most likely get it out in a week with the whole no school thing. I planned out chapter 9, and I have planned for the next five after that, so it should be pretty smooth from this point. I fell like now I kind of owe you all a little teaser, so I'll just say five random words: intense, bang, intense bang, girl, police.


	9. Chapter 9

Florence, now out of costume, played his recorder on the steps of Echo Creek High. "You really suck at that you know," Isaac said. "What sucks is getting practically kicked off of Mewni for nothing." "Wait, why didn't we just finish up that home we found on Mewni?" Marco asked. "Sure I'm down, but," Florence spoke, in an exaggerated tone, imitating Marco, "there could be danger, oh spooky." They sat looking out towards the street, Isaac said, "If that's the case I gonna get some clues cus I, for one, am not going bored." Marco nodded and asked, "But how, how are we supposed to know where he's going to be?" "Um… I got nothing," Isaac responded. From there, they brainstormed, and Marco finally got an idea, "Wanna do some karate?" "Karate? You know what, why not. Will you be taking off your mask?" Florence asked Marco. "No, you're not getting it that easily." "If I may, what's karate?" Isaac asked. Marco smiled and walked off. Isaac rolled his eyes and started towards him.

They stood outside of the dojo, it was in a small plaza and yet Marco would notice the sign anywhere, heck, supposedly he tripped out and saw it in Heckapoo's dimension. Oh sorry, this is a story about the past, not the present (honestly though, don't get too surprised if one day in the present Marco gets addicted to some opioid). Anyway, Florence ran inside ahead of both Marco and Isaac when he saw that they had gis. "So why aren't gonna take off that costume?" Isaac asked. "I'm pretty sure that if I showed my real face that I'd have a lot more Florence to deal with," Marco said as he thought back to when Florence tried to map out the whole castle to see were Star's room was. "Once that guy gets bored, and he knows who you are, you'll never get to be yourself," Marco continued. "Wait he doesn't do that to me." "Yeah, because I think it would be pretty awkward with just the two of you. I mean, you both know basically nothing about each other." Isaac shrugged and walked into the dojo. Marco looked out the window and thought to himself, "Sorry Sensei." The second Isaac walked in, he thought, "Is this a fight club?" He looked over at two students sparring, almost instantly, his mind went tangent, "There training young warriors. But for what?" The Sensei walked over to him, he had a face that was 1: offley similar to Marco's, and 2: It had the strangest mustache-beard combo Isaac had ever seen. It was a complete circle around his head, ending in a sort of goatee. He had a red bandana on his head and was wearing a strange get-up with a ripped sleeveless dragon shirt. "Are you the one teaching these people. I must say, for a place without too many problems, Earth is pretty well prepared for a war." "Uhhhh, what are you talking about?" the Sensei asked, and then he put a hand on his head and said to Isaac, "This is karate, it's uhhhhhh sport and you... fight in it. You know what I'm talking about right?" "Nope, so how do I get one of those gis? I'm still impressed with the interest in fighting here." "Oh, well you see you have to be accepted into the dojo first. Now there are two ways," the man pulled out a board, "to start fighting." Isaac looked at the board, there was a picture of a dollar bill, and a picture of a man in a getup similar to the sensei's but it was all black, while still retaining the red bands, and it covered most of his face. "You can pay and I'll teach you everything I know. Or you can prove yourself, and get accepted, either way, you'll be calling me," the sensei put a fist on his chest and looked to the sky, "Sensei Brantley! So how are you wanting to do things, I have some students that you can spar with. If only Marco was here, he's the best for making sure students DON'T prove themselves. It really helps out you know." "Sure I'll spare with them," said Isaac. In the corner of his eye, he saw Florence putting on a gi, "Wait how come he gets one?" Isaac questioned. "Oh him, he paid for a little boost," the sensei said. Isaac thought to himself, "Nevermind, there is absolutely no interest in fighting here."

Isaac was wearing a blue shirt and black sweatpants that were, once again, plain sportswear. He had picked it up on the way to the dojo since there was a full mall between the two. The dojo was a pretty open space, with different sections for different routines. Isaac walked over to the students, there were plenty of ages, but only a few that was Isaac's. He noticed their hands and looked down at his, then over at the sensei, he nodded nervously. Isaac was still armed and had no idea where he was going to put his stuff, "Failsafe, he can hold em." Isaac looked around, Failsafe had been talking to Florence about how he put the gi on backward. "Hey!" Isaac exclaimed from across the room. Failsafe walked over, "What is it?" "I need you to hold this." "Wow, so you've decided that it's pretty interesting then?" Marco asked. "Not quite." "Well, alright then," Marco said as he took the items. The sensei walked over to the students and said to them, "Who wants to do an initiation?" "Initiation?" Isaac thought. Most of the students' hands went up, sensei picked a composed cockasian boy who was about Isaac's age and height. He looked at Isaac and walked over to the mat, Isaac walked over as well. Sensei Bradley looked at the both of them and said, "Get in your stances." "Wh-?" Isaac was about to ask. "Begin!" "Wow, he doesn't want newcomers to have any chance," Isaac said to himself. The kid ran over and jumped, Isaac put his palms up where the kid's legs could go. He kicked with both and leaped off of the palms. Isaac's composure went tangent, he ran over to the kid and while closing in the kid tried to do a leg sweep, but Isaac stepped on it and slammed the kid to the ground by the neck. Then he threw him up and kicked when the kid landed, Isaac tossed him up to his feet and hit him in the nose with his palm. After Isaac hit him in the stomach, across the right side of his jaw, and then grabbed his arm. He put it behind the kid's back and leaped over, he then turned and kicked out his legs. Isaac put an arm up on his fall turned towards the top of the kid and elbowed his stomach. He put an arm around his neck and one around his arm, he connected the pair and the kid started tapping. Oblivious to this Isaac continued. "Stop the match!" Sensei Bradley said. Isaac let up and stood, looking around he said, "Do I get a gi now?" The sensei was dumbfounded, he thought that he could get this new kid to start paying him. But now that Isaac won, Sensei Bradley had his options open again, he could finally get another student than Marco and the kid Isaac fought to enter a tournament. "You're in!" Sensei Bradley said, heading towards his office to get a gi. Florence started walking over, "Aww, you got to join for free." "Well maybe you could've if you weren't so quick to spend money," Isaac said. Florence sighed, "I think he's gonna try and get you to enter the tournament." "What tournament?" "The karate tournament, what do you think." "What is it though?" "Wait, you don't have these things on Mewni? Well, it's basically just like this, but against more people," Florence said. Sensei Bradley came over to the pair, an outfit in hand. He bowed and presented it to Isaac, Isaac took the outfit and started walking towards the bathroom. Florence thought to himself, "I wonder if he'll join."

Isaac, now in a white gi, started training. The level and pacing was a step down from what he knew though, and if this was the norm, he was going to get bored fast. Karate went to 5:30, so from when Isaac came, he had been there 2 and a half hours. "There was barely any fighting," Isaac thought as he was leaving. "There was barely any fighting!" Florence expressed behind Isaac. "It'll get better, promise," Marco said. "Welp I'm heading home," Florence said. As he walked off Marco made a portal to Isaiah's house, "Can't wait to get that base of ours up and running," he said. "Yeah," Isaac said as he walked through the portal. Marco was about to walk off, but before it closed he put his head in to ask Isaac whether or not he would be in the tournament. Marco fell short, Isaac was looking towards a cloud of smoke coming from a market down the road. It was maybe a half-mile away and it seemed to be surrounded by police. "What's happening?" Marco said stepping through the portal, and since it was just the two of them, he used his normal voice. "I'm not sure," Isaac said as he started to head off. "Hey wait up!" Marco said following after him. They ran down the road until they could see the colorful and differentiated shops. There was police tape lining the street entrance, Marco and Isaac couldn't enter normally. They looked through, there was a food truck that had been ransacked and had a big dent in the top of it. They looked towards the group, there was a body, its spine seeming nonexistent. "Oh my God," Marco said. "Who would do that? And why here?" Isaac wondered. The police caught note of the pair, "Hey!" They looked up towards the police officer, he was walking towards the tape. They ran, trying to use this opportunity to get inside, the officer starting towards them as they did. The pair went around the back and went over a section of the police tape. They were on the forest side of the scene and had been crouched behind another stand. Most of the time, this market consisted of 10 food trucks and a shopping pharmacy in a circle. The stand that Isaac and Marco were behind was one for Jamaican foods and hold the complexion of yellow and green. There were plenty of pictures of foods lining its exterior. "There's some kids on the scene! The brats are trying to get some peeks in," said the officer. Marco and Isaac looked around the corner, there were guards milling about, searching for them. "I got an idea, use that little dagger trick to get their attention," whispered Isaac. "Wait, it's not like that was a normal thing. I've only done that once," Marco whispered back. "Wow, that's cliche. Just try it out," sarcastically, "or do you think it better to just go for it," Isaac said. Marco sighed and brought the dagger out of the sheath on his arm. He looked over his shoulder, there were three police officers shining lights over the area. Marco tried to remember the feel of the duplication, using his own energy and making it dense so that the force would be channeled to a point and take form according to the energy that is in motion. He visualized it and try to do it once again. He closed his eyes and put his hand out in front of the dagger. Isaac looked, and after about half a minute he said, "Nothing's happening." Marco looked at his hand to find nothing, "Wha-," he stopped when he saw traces of purple light. He did it once again, this time trying harder until he heard Isaac. "Nice, you did it. Honestly, I thought we were gonna have to start chucking rocks at em." Looking down he saw the hollow, purple blade laced with a current of flowing energy. He looked over his shoulder, the guards now closer than before, and he turned and threw the dagger overhead. It ended up hitting one of the guards, making them looked around for the attacker. Marco and Isaac made a sprint for the truck nearby the officer's police cars. It was one designated towards Chinese food and had a very similar design to the other truck, only this time Chinese food.

"We're going to need a police report if we're going to find out what happened," said Marco, eyeing the cruiser in front of him. "By the way, I don't know the laws here in Wisconsin, so try not to get us arrested," said Isaac. Marco rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder, there were two officers in their vicinity, but they were searching to the opposite side of the cruiser. Marco crouched and scampered towards the door. Looking inside, there wasn't much, the back seat had been completely reserved for criminals, and the front had basic police equipment. But Marco knew that all he needed was on the laptop between the two seats. The car was locked, and Marco asked Isaac, "Hey, could you lend me your knife for a sec?" "Don't you have one?" "I don't know whether or not it'll work, and I don't want to mess up." "Kay," said Isaac, handing over his dagger. Marco wanted to see how much noise the cut would make, so he put the point on the window and he cut a horizontal line. Starting off, it made a scratching noise, that could be heard by the guards, Marco started to go softer, it wasn't the cleanest cut, but at least it worked out. He tapped the glass and a square-ish piece fell onto the seat. Marco reached his hand inside and unlocked the door. He grabbed the glass and gave Isaac both it and his dagger. Once inside, Marco got on the laptop and looked at what they had. There was a lot of information in the report though, but thankfully, the officer used a flash drive so that they could take the files on the go. All Marco had to do was copy and paste the report on the flash drive and then take it with him. "We got it, let's head back," said Marco. "Did you hear something?" asked one of the guards, now closer than before. The pair ran, hoped the police tap, and started towards Isaiah's house.

Marco and Isaac found themselves at the door of the house. It was 6:30 Isaiah opened the door to greet both of them. Marco and Isaac rushed in, Marco looking for a computer. "Still can't believe we won, I mean I thought they would've tried to kill you," said Isaiah. "They almost did," said Isaac, following Marco. There was one in the living room, along with two side-by-side sofas and a TV. Maroc put in the flash drive and booted up the computer. Upon opening the files, Marco saw that apparently, a man was asking the shopkeeper about "Project Turnover" and when he didn't get an answer he slammed the guy into his shop repeatedly, and threw him into the roof hard enough for it to started carving in. His back and spine were completely shattered and the shards had entered the nerves. But they also entered his liver, and at this point, he was rendered paralyzed. Once the paramedics came, it was already too late. Even if they fix his liver, the bleeding and blood pressure would have raised, making both internal bleeding and blood clots. No matter what he would've died, but what interested Marco was the line, "Project Turnover". In the file, it later said that "the attacker was obsessed with the events of 2002's early incident." "...Hey Isaac, when were you born?" Marco asked. "2002, why?"(as a reminder the year is 2018, at least at this point in the story *wink* *wink*) "Look," Isaac read the line and said, "You think it's connected?" "Maybe, but it ends that's it," said Marco. "It could be connected to Mewni, and if it is we'll need more to go on. I mean, it would be just like that one time, just less fireworks," said Isaac. "Breaking into a police station! How are we even going to go about doing that?" Marco responded. "Can't be much harder than breaking into a castle." "That was different, Mewni isn't as serious about stuff like that." "Well, how else are we going to get this guy?" Isaac asked. Marco sighed, "I guess we don't have a choice." "Now we're talking, let's do it tonight since most officers are off duty at night," Isaac said. "Kay, I'll get Florence," Marco said, standing up. He took out his dimensional scissors, opened a portal, and went through.

"Now where could Florence be?" Marco said, taking out his phone. He sent him a text, but after a while, he didn't think he had time to wait for a reply. "Where does Florence live?" Marco asked himself. Marco was at the gas station, and since it was nearby Florence's house, there had to be someone nearby that knew him. Maybe went to his school, or saw him perform, or even just lived near him. He looked around, "The high school I go to is too far away, so I can't get the list of performers. But if I want his last name, I could try going to his school. No, I'm better off just waiting for a text, and besides, I'm only guessing that it's the closest one. Hmm… he does archery right?" Marco thought, he got out his phone and searched for the nearest archery range, but it was 30 minutes away. "Guess I have to go to the school then," Marco said quietly. He looked at the school closest to the area, then the one closest to the archery center. There were two results, but one of them was Echo Creek High, and the other one was Hakerly High. It was 15 minutes away, meaning the time that they would get back at Isaiah's would turn to 7:00. Marco thought, "Might as well." He took off his costume and started towards the school when Florence responded. "Are you at the gas station?" "Yeah." "Kay," said Florence. "Guess we'll be on time then," thought Marco.

Once back at the house, Isaac told Florence about their plan, even though it wasn't quite finished. "Break into a police station why again?" Florence asked. "The guy who did that crime over there," Isaac pointed towards the door, "could have something to do with Mewni." "We'll need a plan first though," Marco said. Isaac and Florence eyed him and said, "Let's do that when we get there." "Wha-?" Marco began to ask, but the pair was already heading for the door. Marco sighed and started after them. The police station was about a half hour away by foot, but with the power of Google, anything is possible. The actual building wasn't nearby the street, but the concrete that they put around the area was. There were lined police's cars ready for application. The building was white and was the size of two three-story houses put together horizontally. Only the left house was two stories in height, leaving the other with a space that could be almost considered as a window, and one with blue tinted glass facing the front, back, and right side. At the bottom, on the bigger house side, there was a garage. "That could be a way in," Marco said, pointing. "I think we should just go for the window," said Isaac. "If we do that there's no way we could get out." "We could get into a car chase," said Florence. "Yea-," Isaac began. "No, let's just go in through the garage and work our way up. Most of the police will be doing paperwork anyway," said Marco. There were two guards watching the street entrance, Florence, in the lead, head up his hands. "What are you doing, they're just talking to each other. Let's go while we still can," said Isaac heading to the lead. Florence scratched his head and went on. The main problem was how large the lot was, but with the many cars, the trio went to the far side of the parking lot and was about to sneak past. They crouched outside the garage door. "Hold up, we'll wait for someone else to open it," Marco said. It took a while, 15 minutes to be exact, for a police officer to return home. When the group hearing the metal door open, they went towards its the pillar closest to it. The car came out slowly as if it knew they were there. The driver looked out of his window and yelled to the other cop, "I don't see anybody here. I think you're just paranoid about what happened over at that gas station." "Maybe," the other officer yelled back. He pressed the button to close the garage door and Marco peaked around the corner to see if he was watching. He did a slight scan of the area and then walked off. At this point, the door was a fourth of the way to go, Marco, Isaac, and Florence ran and slid underneath.

The inside was all gray and had to ramps on both sides to get up. "Now to find a staircase and work our way up," Marco thought. He looked about, there was an elevator to his right, but it lead to the left side of the structure and it went through an office area. Yet on his left, there were the personal lockers for the officers. "Let's take the elevator, it's probably our best bet," he said. "Can't argue on that one," said Florence. The office area had three columns where the officers could work in were about three officers working in the space: one on the right-side corner of the staircase, the other two were closer together in the middle, one seat apart on the left side. Luckily the on next by the stairs was looking at the wall, so all the trio needed to do was crouch across the right side. Once at the stairs, Isaac took a pen from and desk and threw to the right of the officer, once he looked he sprinted up the stairs. They went up like this to the second level, not caring about the exes noise they made. The room was for first responders, and it was packed with people waiting for someone to call 911. "Shi-," Isaac started, but Florence but in with, "I expect a few quarters for that." Isaac sighed and looked for a way through. Everyone was in cubicles, each one had a computer, a phone, and a notepad. There were two row, one facing the left wall and the other the right. "There's no way through and the people below probably heard us go up the stairs," Marco thought. Florence whispered behind them, "Hey, pssst, I found a vent that might lead to that other building." Marco looked, it was a house vent (btw that's the one with that circular foil; they don't have that around anymore, nowadays they use temperature regulators and what I like to call future filters) and it was just big enough to crawl through. "Just in case it doesn't and there's a drop, you're going first. Besides, it's hot in there." Isaac said. Florence climbed in with no objection, then Marco and finally, yet reluctantly, Isaac went in.

It was hard to navigate, especially with the absence of light. Though through taking only rights the entire time, the group finally came across another vent, upon another staircase. Florence looked at the scene before him, the black painted stairs lead upwards towards the main office. He looked back and pondered, "Wait this entire time we've been thinking that no-one was gonna be up there, but what do we do if there is?" Marco looked at Isaac, "Just shoot him." Isaac nodded and the group started on opening the vent when they heard an officer's voice from below, they waited for it to fade and proceeded cautiously. The way up was the hardest, not knowing where to find this person was a problem. An even bigger problem was that the door was closed. "We'll bust in and fire," said Marco, "3,2,1!" The group ramed the door and looked around, the chief was at his desk, laying over, passed out. "Did he get drunk?" Florence asked. Marco rolled his eyes, "I always knew the police spent their time doing something while they waited for a call. But I never thought it would be this." The officer jerked wide awake and looked around. He saw the trio and instantly started dialing a number on his phone. "Too late," Isaac said, shooting him. "Ohhh he gonna tell that one in the morning," said Florence as him and Marco cringed. They heard a lieutenant coming up the staircase and hid behind the two sides of the doorway, Isaac to the left and the others to the right. "Hey I got that blanket you asked for I don't really get wh-. Boss?" The lieutenant questioned. "Hy Ya!" Florence exclaimed coming from the side, taking the blanket, wrapping it around his head and pulling down to flip him on his back. "Got any duct tape?" Florence asked. Marco sighed, "I have a feeling that I've done this before."

The lieutenant found himself strapped to a chair (Yes using LOTS of duct tape) and observing the scene around him. Isaac was going through a filing cabinet, "Project Turnup?" The lieutenant starting struggling to get out of there, but the 50 wraps of duct tape were too strong. The group looked over at him and Marco asked, "Hey what do you know about Project Turnu-, I mean Turnover?" Although the lieutenant had some of his own questions to ask, "Who are you, where is the chief, get me out of here this instant or you'll all be arrested!" "Wow thanks for reminding me that I'm technically a criminal now," Florence said, "seriously though answer us." The lieutenant looked around and then sighed, "Project Turnover is mostly a conspiracy nowadays, no one really knows what happened. There used to be a file that said, 'the people of Mewni have invaded', but the rest was classified. Wait a minute, are you guys like junior men in black, CIA type people searching around for aliens! And if so please don't wipe my brain!" "Shhhhhh!," Isaac whispered loudly, "no we're just trying to find out who this guy is and what exactly he's planning to do." The lieutenant pondered this, and said, "Ok, the guy wasn't exactly a human, more like a mix. A mix of like part machine and part man, but the machine was all inside his body. He was sturdy, he stood up a full 7 feet and was pretty strong. But to be honest, this is all part of something that a witness said when we interviewed them." "The mall," Marco mumbled. Florence heard this and asked, "Do you think that ringmaster guy is involved?" Marco looked at him and nodded. "Ringmaster? I was talking to Mr. Waters the other day, he was pretty depressed now that I think about it, but I think the exact line of what he said was, 'a ringmaster has come into my life'. It was completely out of the blue," the lieutenant said. Marco looked at him, "Where is Mr. Waters now?"

"I home to my lovely apartment and my lovely guest who I hope wasn't causing a ruckus," the Ringmaster said to Ms. Waters. "First of all, the floor has been soundproofed and second, your strapped to a chair, like what are you going to do? Anyway," He started putting up a map on the wall behind Ms. Waters, "we're going to go on a little field trip you and me. It'll be just like the high school days, I mean we're going to a nuclear power plant in order to," He put his fingers up in air quotes, "learn." He walked in front of Ms. Waters, "If it makes you feel better this all happened because Mr. Simen switch the both of you two's blood while you were asleep. Does that alone keep you up at night? The fact that your own ex-husband would switch your DNA with his all so Mewni wouldn't have that wonderful magic. Although there would be a lot more if you two didn't already have a daughter back in 02. For my goal, I'll need all of your family's magic so it's a shame that I'll have to leave this place. But who knows, I hear Mewni wonderful around this time of year." And with this, the Ringmaster walked off smiling.

* * *

 **Ok, so I think I finally found out how to do Author's note on here. Speaking of finallies, I finally get to put out a chapter for this story. But I think it worked out good since I feel like I work best when I'm going to school. So chapter 10 will probably be this week and I'm pretty excited for it since I think that it's kind of a turning point in the story. But that's all you'll get out of me, until then. And I probably add an arc to chapter 1 so it stops bothering me.**


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